Page 37 of Penance

“I don’t want to go to the doctor,” I say flatly, instantly.

My response coming automatically, it doesn’t matter if I need to or not, I just can’t go.

“Jacob can fix me,” I add quietly.

“Jacob isn’t a specialist hand surgeon, we’ve been through this, Darlin’. Don’t you wanna be able to stab people with both hands again?” he smiles teasingly.

One of those slow sexy winks I like so much gets thrown my way and the bats that reside in my tummy take flight. Yeah, bats, not butterflies. I’m too dark in my core for anything requiring light to survive.

“Huxley,” I say quietly.

Swallowing past the clog of emotion in my throat, trying to be as honest as I can be.

“I really don’t want to go to the doctor. I don’t want to be alone with strange people and I really, reallycan’tbe put under,” I almost whisper, my eyes hurting with the searing heat at the back of them.

Huxley stares at me for too long. His endless dark pits, the colour of the night sky, boring into me, he doesn’t even blink as he looks up at me. Like he’s diving far deeper than anyone is safe to. My soul draws in, curling in on itself like a tiny, grey woodlouse trying to protect itself as Huxley’s impenetrable gaze devours our every secret.

“How about,” he starts gently, licking his luscious peach-coloured lips, his tongue piercing glinting with the action. The click of it against his teeth as he flicks it in thought. “I take you to my family’s doctor, just you and me. I’ll stay with you the whole time, I’ll be in the surgery with you, if that’s what you need. I’ll even fuck up my afro with one of those fucking shower cap hairnet things,” his eyebrows dance like wiggly caterpillars, the smirk building slowly as the corners of my lips curl up slightly. “There’s my girl,” he hushes, leaning in, pressing his soft lips to mine.

Our kiss is a soft, delicate thing, such a contrast to the way he attacked my face last night. I mean, I’m wearing the evidence of said devourment like a shiny purple collar this morning.

“When?” I ask once he’s broken our kiss, leaving me wanting more, I always want more of Huxley.

Already knowing he’s booked it all in, that’s why he could tell me he’d stay with me throughout the whole thing with such confidence, because it’s already fucking scheduled. You have to pick and choose your battles in this life; this is one I’m waving a white flag at. I’m not arguing with him when I know itiswhat’s best for me. I really need my fucking hand.

“Thought we’d get Christmas out the way first, so, twenty-seventh. They’ll do the scans, x-rays, the whole assessment, give you your options or talk you through whatever and then surgery,ifit’s needed. If you prep the day before they’ll do it all then and there. You’ve got a private room, I can stay with you, we’ll station people you trust on the doors, entrances, exits, fire escapes. Whatever you need. And I won’t leave your side. At all, the entire time. You pee, I pee,” he beams, and I snort, knowing he’s absolutely serious.

“You got this all figured out then, huh? Thought this was just a friendly chat,” I cock a brow, trying and failing to hide my smile.

“Shut it, you,” he chuckles, rising out of his crouch and locking his long, lean arms around me.

His face in my hair, he inhales, sucking in a deep lungful of me and him, because I really only smell like his t-shirt. I press a kiss to the side of his neck, my good arm looped around his lower back. I relax into him, settling into his strong embrace.

“I love you, Hux,” I whisper almost breathlessly, because fuck, I really do love him.

“And I love you, Darlin’, so fucking much.”

Chapter9

Kyla-Rose

Christmas Eve

“What in the fuck are you doing?” Max bellows the following afternoon as he steps intomyliving room.

He’s staying here with us, and I’m not really sure why, but I haven’t asked him to leave, and he hasn’t told us he’s going to. I guess until I decide how I feel about it, he’s staying. So…

He stops in the open archway, his black booted feet at my eye level, black, skin-tight, ripped jeans clinging to his muscular calves. I swallow down my mouthful of vanilla milkshake, letting the paper straw pop free from between my lips. I lick over my bottom lip, slowly raising my book up towards the ceiling, my thumb pinched between the pages, so I don’t lose my place. Tilting my head farther to look up at him. My neck twisting uncomfortably as I take in his crisp white t-shirt and scuffed, black leather jacket. His knuckles blanching as he clenches and unclenches his inked fingers, his left hand branded withme.

The place where his thumb and index finger meet, an old-school style swallow is tattooed, the rest of his hand a large, shaded rose. Thorns wrapping themselves around the rest of his pale skin, down his fingers, up his wrist, disappearing from my perusal inside his leather sleeve.

“Oh! Welcome home, darling! You sound like you’ve had a wonderful day!” I mock, my lips morphing into a petty, sarcastic smile as I blink slowly at him.

“Why the fuck are you sitting like that?” he growls, the sound low and toxic.

Goosebumps smatter across my bare arms, the little blonde hairs standing to attention.

“I’m reading,obviously,” I scoff, likehe’sthe idiot he tries so hard to makemeout to be.

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