Page 72 of Stutter

Chapter Eighteen

Damon.

Eleven minutes.

Eleven minutes have passed since Raven perched her gorgeous, heart-shaped ass on my sofa, crossed her strong, supple legs, her arms over her ample chest, and stared blankly – not at me, but at the clock on the wall behind me.

I clear my throat, and her gaze flicks to mine.

“You promised you were going to try,” I say, picking off imaginary lint from the notebook I keep all of my personal notes on her progress as of late. As her doctor, I’m proud of how far she’s come in just the few short months she’s been out of Lorne Wood. As her boyfriend, I’m upset she doesn’t want to talk to her doctor.

It’s a vicious cycle.

“You… won’t…” her cheeks turn bright pink, and she turns her head away.

“I won’t what, Raven?”

“Not mmy na…me.”

Her snarky tone warms my heart. It is the sass I knew she kept hidden for so long. I like it. “Okay then,Amourette, I won’t what?”

Her blush is close to crimson. “F…fuck mmy throat.”

My dick definitely heard that. Doing my best to keep a straight face, I inhale as slowly as possible. I blink and jot down, ‘Patient is upset I won’t fuck her throat.’

I exhale slowly.

“I see.”

I take a look at the note above it that says, ‘patient responds very well to outer and inner stimuli during night terrors. Prefers cunnilingus during sleep state to awaken.’

“And this upsets you?”

She deadpans, meeting my gaze straight on. “Yes.”

I jot down, ‘minimal stuttering with less syllables although slightly resentful.’

“Can you tell me why this causes you grief?”

“You… treat mm…me like I’m f-f-fragile. I’m… not… fragile.” She pauses, and I can see her jaw moving, putting the right words together and her eyes well up with tears as her hands, although tucked into the creases of her arms form into fists.

‘Patient silently exhibits anger through body language, doing better on tapering emotions when directed at loved ones.’

My heart shudders. Christ. Is that what she really thinks?

“You… tr-treat mme like I’ll… br… break. I’m… not” She bites theT“crazy. Sh…shadow was real t…to me. And then he… was v-very real. Not only in… my mind.” Raven looks away again but then turns her focus back to the clock behind me.

Good. We’re finally having this conversation, and I didn’t have to bring it up. I still feel guilty over it even though I apologized. “When did you start seeing your shadow person, Little Bird?”

She shrugs. “Af…ter my dad… died. I th-thought he w-w-was back to… watch o…ver me.”

“What changed? When did you begin to feel as though it wasn’t benign or maybe more?”

“I fed it my fears,” she says clearly, and when I quirk a brow, urging her to continue, her lips roll inwardly and then she says, “And Itgrew.”

Slivers of chills splice through me.

“Did it ever speak to you or touch you or make you feel unsafe?”

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