Page 138 of Corpse Roads
“Easy, Goldilocks. I’m joking.”
She relaxes against my chest with a sigh. We lie in silence, holding each other so close, it’s a wonder either of us can breathe.
I memorise every inch of her. The expanse of her bruised and scarred skin, the tiny blemishes and freckles across her slightly crooked nose. Her thick lashes dappled over dark splotches of exhaustion ringing her crystalline eyes.
She’s so fucking beautiful.
I need to remember this moment, capture it in mental ink and hang it on the battered walls of my soul. After prison, I vowed to never again give someone access to the most vulnerable part of myself.
No matter how alone that left me.
But with Harlow, I want to try.
“Please… don’t run away again,” I plead in a soft whisper. “If you need space, that’s fine. Tell someone and we’ll make it work.”
“I’m sorry,” she repeats tiredly.
“Stop apologising. Just don’t walk out without saying goodbye. It may not seem like it, but I have… feelings. We all do.”
“Feelings?” Harlow echoes.
“The world is a better place with you in it, believe it or not. I don’t want to be here if you’re not with me.”
Seeing her bandaged and bruised after so much progress is excruciating, but I know she’ll rise again. The frightened girl that arrived here has blossomed into someone else.
“I think… I have feelings too,” she whispers back.
“You do?”
“I didn’t want to leave, but seeing Giana was too much. I spent my entire life thinking I was someone else. Now, I don’t know who I am.”
I press a gentle kiss to her temple. “You’re my Harlow.”
Her head tilts up so she can look at me. She’s breathing hard, and I can feel the pounding of the organ behind her ribcage.
Letting my eyes close, I press my lips to hers. No matter how stupid and downright fucking selfish it is. I want her. I need her. I can’t spend another second in this house without her.
The kiss is featherlight, a tender, apologetic brush. We drink each other in with nothing but charged air between us. Running the tip of my tongue over her lower lip, she relents and allows me in.
It’s the most subdued kiss of my life, and it may well get me burned alive if the others knew what we were doing up here. I can’t find it in myself to care. I’ll risk the punishment.
Nothing matters but the feel of her breath tangling with mine, infusing the very essences of our beings into one chaotic, destined knot. Kissing her is the biggest mistake of my life.
She’s going to create a war within this family. I know it. I’m running into battle, blinded and unafraid. I’ll fight the only family I’ve ever had if that’s what it takes to walk away with her.
When we separate, neither one of us speaks for a long time, until the sound of arguing from downstairs breaks the daze.
“I should go and let them know you’re awake.” I sigh, brushing the hair back from her face. “Rest, Goldilocks.”
She’s asleep in an instant. Tangling my fingers in her soft, brown locks, I sift through the layers, afraid of what I’ll find. There’s a significant bald patch spanning the left side of her crown.
It’s uneven and sore, the scalp reddened where she’s ripped whole clumps of hair out over time. Gulping hard, I smooth her remaining hair back down.
Fuck.
This is such a mess.
She doesn’t stir as I sneak out of bed and back downstairs. I can hear the others in Hunter’s office, bickering again. We seem to be lurching from one disaster to another.