Page 59 of Psycho

Why did I let him do that to me?

Why did I kiss him back?

I could feel his eyes on me for a moment before he shifted away, moving back to his side.

I let out a small sigh, and I didn’t know if that was from relief or disappointment.

My lips still tingled from the kiss, and one of my nipples was wet from his mouth.

I opened my eyes when he clicked off the lamp on the bedside table, then reached over and pulled me back into his arms.

I didn’t bother pulling away, knowing from the tight hold of his arms that he wouldn’t let me.

He pushed his legs in between mine, and one arm crossed over my chest and cupped the ball of my shoulder while the other pushed up against my stomach.

There wasn’t a single inch of space between us.

“Go to sleep, Lainey,” he said gruffly.

I wondered how he was expecting me to do just that after that kiss, especially since I could feel his hard-on pushed up against my bottom.

Hell.

* * *

I must have been moretired than I thought, because I had fallen asleep in his arms shortly after lying there.

The next thing I knew, I was awake, the morning sun peeking through the cloudy morning, still in the position Micah had put us in the night before.

I could feel the heat of him on my back.

I had never slept in the same bed as someone. Never spent the night and woke up with them nearby. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to feel about this.

And I wondered why I wasn’t panicking more than I was.

It felt like I was living in a war zone half of the time I was in the trailer, always waiting for when a bad day came around, and Dad took it out on me.

Things had been better during the school year because I wasn’t always hanging around when he was home, and things got marginally better when he used me to do the accounting stuff for the boxing gym and cage fights.

But there was always a noticeable buzz of energy around me, preparing for flight because I knew I couldn’t fight him.

I should have been terrified right now, but for the first time, I woke up, and I felt…

Nothing.

Perhaps they had finally broken me.

Dad always promised he would.

Who knew the way to go about it was to use me to settle his debt?

I blinked and turned around and took in Micah’s open eyes.

He was awake, and I didn’t know how long he had been like this, how long he had stayed like this, consciously holding me in his arms.

I opened my mouth but abruptly closed it when no words came to mind.

My eyes moved down his full lips, remembering the way he had pressed them firmly against mine last night, the way his big hands had played with me… the way he had suckled one of my nipples into his mouth.

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