Page 79 of Deliria

When we separate, she gets up to use the toilet but when she comes back, I’m quick to pull her into my arms, pulling her back to my chest. She snuggles against me, her body fitting so damned perfectly against mine.

I brush her hair away from her face, my fingers trailing down her cheek, her neck, her shoulder. Her skin is soft, smooth, so perfect. She sighs, leaning into my touch, her body melting against mine.

We lie in silence for a while, both of us silently taking what we need. But I can feel her trust, her hope, her faith in me.

It’s a heady feeling, a powerful one.

It’s also fucking terrifying.

“Rafe?” she says softly, breaking the silence.

“Hmm?” I murmur, my fingers tracing patterns on her skin.

“This is working, isn’t it? This is going to plan?”

The weight of that question isn’t lost on me. All the sacrifice so far has been on her part. She’s taken the full weight of this while I’ve done nothing. “It is.” I say.

She searches my face for a moment like she half expects me to be lying to her.

“I… I didn’t think it would be this hard.” She admits.

“I know.” I reply. “I didn’t think my brother would…”

Her fingers silence the last of my sentence. “Don’t talk about him. Don’t bring it up. It is what it is.”

“How can you stand it?” I snap as that vision of him, of her, of them, flashes in my head. “How can you stand him, and my father…”

Her lips eat those words, swallow all the hate that I feel and for a second, I forget about anything beyond the taste of her, the addiction of her kisses.

As she breaks away from me there’s a flicker of sadness, of remorse in her eyes. “It is what is necessary.” She sighs.

I know from her tone that this is over. This moment. She’s taken what she needs, and now we both have to go back to playing our parts.

She needs to be the sacrificial lamb again.

And me, I need to be the brooding, rebellious, wayward younger brother.

But as she pulls away, as she gets up to leave, I grab her arm, yanking her right back and I press a kiss to the top of her head, breathing in the scent of her, the feel of her in my arms.

And in my head, a voice is screaming at me that soon this smell, this person, this would-be devil will no longer exist.

She’ll fade back, become the docile broken creature again and if I’m not careful, I might never get her back.

Scarlett

It was reckless.

Reckless, stupid and so fucking dangerous.

I shouldn’t have gone with him. I shouldn’t have let him whisk me away like I’m some sort of damsel in distress.

If someone saw us, if someone realised… no. No one did. No one saw a damned thing.

And more importantly, I needed this. I needed this escape, this comfort, everything that Rafe’s arms were promising, even if it was just a temporary fix. A band-aid over a far deeper wound.

I let out a deep sigh.

I need to get back to my room, back to playing my part before anyone realises what’s actually going on.

---