Page 282 of Hide and Keep

“Good. I’ve been making it pretty obvious.”

Somehow, my smile widens.

“Come on.”

We get ourselves some water before Crue leads me to his bedroom. It’s not at all what I was expecting. It is small. But it’s also bare. Aside from a bed, a dresser, and a nightstand, there’s nothing else in here. No décor, no personality whatsoever. Nothing like the rest of the house, it could pass as a cell.

Was that his intent?

“It’s not that dark, I know.”

“It’s not really anything,” I mutter before eyeing him to suggest, “You could put a shirt over the lamp.”

“Oh, yeah. Shit.”

He proceeds to take the shirt he’s wearing off, only stopping when he hears me laugh.

“I knew it.” Every time I’d go to his room, there’d be another one of his shirts on the lamp. I figured that was why, but he never confirmed it until this moment.

“Just trying to make my little bat feel more at home,” he says with a shy grin. “Want me to see if I can scrounge up some moss for you?”

“No.” I roll my eyes. “Stick out your arms.”

Shirt still in one hand, Crue spreads his arms out wide. “Like this?”

I step up to his front and they close around me instantly.

“This feels like home.”

Crue hugs me tighter, blanketing me in love and security.

“My security blanket,” I say with a sigh.

“Your everything.”

With my eyes closed to keep the tears from falling, I breathe him in. “My everything.”

After a while, we undress and climb into Crue’s bed, our bodies coming together like magnets under the covers, our faces inches apart as we gaze into each other’s eyes.

“Why did you go through so much trouble to get rid of me in the beginning?”

I raise my gaze to the ceiling. Even in the dark I can see every tiny island of texture on it. All of our walls and ceilings are smooth. No blemishes, no imperfections. It sets a tone, a standard, one that’s expected to be upheld by the manor’s inhabitants at all times.

Crue shakes me. “Ever?”

I could tell him it was just something I did to all the guards my father tried putting on me and it’d be true. But it wouldn’t be the whole truth, not in his case.

“Because I wanted to keep you but knew I’d never get to.”

“I’m yours to keep. No one else’s. Never anyone else’s.”

But am I Crue’s to keep? According to my father, I’m not. My last name makes me his alone. My father isn’t the type to let go of his assets. If I thought there was a chance he would, I would’ve tried running away a long time ago.

I wouldn’t have gotten very far, which is most likely more to blame for my lack of escape attempts than anything else. But I didn’t have the same kind of motivation before. I didn’t have anywhere to go or anyone to go to.

Maybe now that I have both, I can give this a real effort.

“Is that why you called me Never?” I tease. I know why he did that—to hurt me as much as I was hurting him.

---