Page 115 of Swallow Your Sorries

Good. Take the accountability route. He’ll like that.

“You had an accident too.”

It’s not really a question, but I nod.

“When you were running away from me?”

“It’s what I deserve right?”

He doesn’t answer, his expression growing more distant by the second, and suddenly I’m cold. Freezing.

“Did you go to the hospital?”

“No.”

“That’s why it didn’t heal right,” he mutters to himself, his eyes dropping to the scar again. “You should’ve gone to the hospital.”

“I had a lot of other things to think about that night.”

“Were you really that scared of me? That you didn’t look before running into the traffic?”

“Can you blame me? Look at the lengths you went through just to lure me here.”

“You could’ve died too.”

It’s like I can see him leaving me even though I can reach out and touch him, and I do. I don’t know what possesses me, but the hollowness in his eyes scares me enough that I want to bring him back to me. I curl my hand behind his neck, pulling him down so we’re almost nose to nose.

“Gant?”

Wax spills across his fingers. So much of it that I’m sure the pain overrides the pleasure now. Still, he doesn’t reanimate. He’s as frozen as a statue beside his lips that mumble inaudibly,“dead”.

“Gant?” I whisper again. “I’m right here.”

“You could’ve…”

“But I didn’t.” I take the candle from him and use some of its dripping wax to stick it back onto the pile. Then I take his wax-covered fingers and press them over my left breast. Over my heart. “See? It’s still beating. I’m still here.”

“Elle?”

The confusion blooming in his eyes ignites a sudden desperation within me that I don’t think I’ve ever felt before.

Not when I’m being bullied.

Not even when I was being abused by Jarett.

Not when I’d spent every waking second practising for Beaulieu’s audition.

Never.

But it roils in my belly now so fiercely that I know I have to dosomething.So I lean forward and press my lips to his.

They’re soft but unyielding, so I lick them. Part them with my tongue and suck on his bottom lip before I bite it. Not hard enough to draw blood, but enough that he can’t ignore it.

He can’t ignore me.

Seconds tick by and then I’m shoved back, off my elbows and flat onto the table again. Gant’s bound hands slide over my head, and his elbows land by my ears as his warm tongue invades my mouth.

The weight of him, the inhale and exhale of his torso, his cock that stabs at my ass. All of it makes me want to hold on to him so tight, he’ll never leave me like that again.

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