Page 84 of Triple Threat

“What is?” he asked, and I bit my bottom lip, the confession a difficult one to make out loud but then I remembered… Kyle never made fun of me about the really important things. He knew. He never said anything to make me feel inferior back then… I hoped that still held true, now.

“Being cared for,” I murmured. “Not having to make every single decision about every single thing and have it feel like I had a fifty-fifty chance of it being life or death.”

He pressed a thumb into my trapezius and let it glide along my skin, pulling me closer into his side and pressing a kiss to my temple, above my ear… breathing me in. It was an amazing moment of stillness among the bustle of the market. The two of us, a stone in the midst of the babbling brook of humanity around us and I closed my eyes and soaked it in.

“I’ve got you, Shady,” he murmured and for the first time, the nickname made me smile.

We bought three of the scarves. One blue, one purple, and one silver. I stopped at another stall on the street and Kyle made sure I was alright and broke from me, to wander into a shop right behind where I was at with bars on the window.

I perused some handmade silk batik neckties and smiled, holding up the charge card Roan had given me and the seller bobbing his head enthusiastically, I chose a purple one and a blue one that closely matched the scarves that Kyle had bought for me, and a hand-woven handbag that suited me to hide them in.

I took the bag back from the seller as something dropped over my head, flashing in the bright sunlight.

“What’s this?” I asked, touching rippling metal with a fingertip as Kyle clasped the necklace behind my neck.

“A bit of treasure for my treasure,” he said, and I could hear the grin at his cleverness in his voice. He held a hand mirror from the vendor’s table out in front of me and I gasped, leaning forward for a better look.

“Is thatreal?” I asked.

“Absolutely, I assure you. Here.”

He handed me a slip of paper, but I couldn’t immediately take my eyes off the thick, misshapen silver coin edged in gold on its golden chain. I turned my eyes to the literature that came with it and leaned back against Kyle, his hands smoothing over my arms, as I read out loud about the piece of eight around my neck and the shipwreck it had come from.

I turned in his arms and put mine around his neck.

“It’s beautiful and amazing,” I murmured.

“I figured with your love of all things history and literature, it would give you and Roan something to talk about.” He smirked. “That and it’ll give that ginger bitch some major jealousy.”

“Kyle!” I cried outraged and slapped him in his chest. “That’s a real rude way to talk about your best friend.”

He laughed.

“Heismy best friend,” he agreed. “And I’m sure he’s said a lot worse about me.”

I felt my mouth drop open, and I shook my head. “He hasn’t, actually… he’s never once spoken badly of you in front of me.”

Kyle arched a dark eyebrow like he didn’t believe me and I frowned slightly.

“We love you, you know,” I murmured, and that eyebrow came down, and a slow, almost tentative and shy smile split his sensual lips.

“You love me?” he asked, and I tucked myself into his front, holding him close.

“I’ve loved you since forever,” I said. “It never stopped. Not with time or distance. Not even when I thought you long must have stopped even thinking about me…”

He tipped my chin and forced me to look up at him, his dark eyes obsidian glass, hard and sharp as he looked at me.

“I never stopped thinking about you, Shady. Never. Not once. Don’t you ever say something like that again. Don’t you ever think that.” I swallowed hard and nodded, struck mute by his intensity. He dipped his head and kissed me fiercely and I returned it just as ardently.

The relief that swept through me was intense.He’d thought of me, he loved me, all the things I’d wished for had been laid in my hands and it was overwhelming to an extent. Still, there was a frightening and niggling doubt far in the back of my mind, nibbling at the tender meat of my heart.

Could I accept it? That the Kyle of my youth, the boy I had so loved had evolved into this man? Tender, yet cruel, sharp and yet soft… it was easy to forget for a moment when he held me like this that hemurdered peoplefor money.It was even easier to forget that Roan helped him to that end…

What was I getting myself into?That wasn’t the question so much ashow could I fall so far so fast?

I thought I had morals, that I couldn’t or wouldn’t be a whore for a bit of food or comfort… but I guess I already knew that wasn’t exactly true. I fought back the deep wave of shame that swept through me and smiled up at Kyle, but just like when we were kids, he knew… healwaysknew.

“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked me as we continued our stroll.

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