Page 33 of Where We Ended
She asked, hours later, when we were tangled together in the sheets. “Tell me why you call me it.”
“Call you what?”
I smiled, knowing what she was talking about but wanting to mess with her.
This truth, one I had realized couldn’t be more true if I were to ink it into my very marrow.
She pushed at my shoulder. “You know what.”
Caelum.
“You’re the closest I’ll ever get to heaven, to redemption or being found worthy. I look at you, and I see hope. Isn’t that all heaven is? Hope, eternity spent in the one place we can’t imagine living without? You’re that for me. You’re my religion, Natty. My place of worship and devotion. God wants nothing to do with me, but for some reason he still gave me you.”
Tears gleamed in her eyes as she stared up at me, the string of lights reflecting her emotions.
“You are good, Silas. You think you’re covered in all this darkness, but I see past that.”
With a scoff, I shook my head. “You’re the only one who ever did.”
Her warm fingers found my jaw, pulling my face back toward her. “You only need one person, Silas. I live in a world made up of two people who care for me. That’s enough. I don’t need more than that.”
Fuck, it was hard to argue with her when she placed our lives side by side. I was never abandoned the way she was. I had never been handed to a man for payment…thankfully my mom was there and stopped anyone from hurting her. But it still happened. She had no one but us. It made me pull her closer, pressing a kiss to her shoulder.
“I want you to feel safe around here, and even come to the club for certain things.”
“Why? We’ve gone all this time without going…why change it now?”
She wasn’t going to like this, but it was too late.
“I patched in…”
She shifted so she could see me better. “As a prospect?”
I shook my head. “Dirk made an exception…I’m an official member, I have a rank.”
Natty was silent at that, so I was about to push on when she suddenly sat up. The sheets stayed in place as her golden brows dipped into her forehead.
“I want to see it…your cut…”
Something in me twisted uncomfortably. My head began shaking on instinct, but she shocked me by sliding out of bed, lightning fast, that sheet still wrapped around her.
I tried to move with her, but I fumbled out of bed, the remaining sheet catching around me, right as she walked back into the room with my leather cut.
She held it up with two hands, inspecting it.
“Wow…feels weird seeing it like this. Feeling it.”
I watched as she stroked over the patches, and my name…and my gut sank as she began tracing the letters under it.
“What is this one…The Roman?”
My mouth wouldn’t open. I couldn’t tell her.
I wouldn’t tell her.
Her head swiveled, her eyes pinning me down as she implored again, “What does it mean?”
“It’s just a nickname. Everyone gets one.”