Page 51 of Love Me

Abi is at the door when she calls my name. I look at her from over my shoulder.

“She must trust you to hold her when she’s at her most vulnerable.”

I turn Celine to the side, but her face scrunches up and she wraps herself around me. Oh baby, you’re fucking killing me.

I drag a blanket and cover us, holding her to my chest.

She sobs in her sleep and my chest tightens. I kiss her eyes, her face, and her lips, needing to comfort her.

“Shh, it’s just a bad dream. I’m here.”

“Kaden?”

“Yes, baby.”

A smile teases her lips, slicing pieces of my heart.

“Tell me the truth,” I whisper to her. “Why did you come back?”

“To take them down.”

I freeze and spend the rest of the night watching her, going over her words. Them? It can only mean the Family. Is she fucking delusional?

When she wakes up, she observes me intently.

I arch a brow at her. “Planning new ways to make me bleed?”

“What can I say? I like you bleeding.”

I expel a deep sigh. She’s trying to gain the control she thinks she relinquished last night. I knew it would happen, but still I hoped. Misery once again chokes the life essence out of me.

Deflated, I push myself off the couch.

“I got your car fixed.”

Sweetness rolls out of her sinful lips. I know she did something.

When I find Blake outside holding his stomach, Bailey suppressing a smile, and Abigail analyzing my car as if she doesn’t know what to think, I get my answer. I move closer to it and my jaw drops. Yellow stars pepper both sides of my black car.

“I’m sure that’s neon,” Abi says.

“And reflective,” Bailey adds.

I cock my head, grinning. “This girl is insane.”

“Yes, and your voice says you have no problem with that,” Blake says.

They don’t get it, but I do. My sky full of stars––the night sky. You won’t let me forget. You don’t want me to, do you?

I smile like a fool the entire day.

Not only do my classmates look incredulously at me, but my professors do too.

When classes end, I head to my car, and Celine is leaning against the hood. A recurring thing that keeps my hope alive. She trails a finger up and down it, while I salivate to trail my tongue up and down her legs. Every day, it gets harder and harder to suppress my desire for her.

“Do you like it?”

“I love it.”

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