Page 126 of Reckless Hearts
“Well, that went well,” Marcus drawls.
I rub my head, a hiss of pain escaping through clenched teeth. The throbbing has intensified, sending sharp spikes of agony behind my eyes.
Marcus’s expression softens, and he comes over to me, pulling me into his chest, cradling my head in his hand.
“You need to go back to bed, baby.”
He kisses my temple with lips so soft I can barely feel them, like the brush of a butterfly’s wings against my skin.
There’s a noise from the door.
Saskia’s standing there.
She’s staring at Marcus holding me like we’re a complex equation she can’t quite solve, her eyes darting between our faces as if searching for the missing variable that will help her understand.
“I forgot my handbag,” she says stiffly.
“Saskia…” I say as she retrieves her handbag from the coffee table.
Her eyes brim with tears.
“Not now, Seb,” she says, backing away.
This time, she closes the door normally rather than slamming it.
“She’ll come round,” I say.
“Yeah, I hope so.”
Marcus takes me back to bed.
He eases onto the bed beside me, pulling the covers over us, creating a cocoon of warmth.
But he’s barely settled down before he sits up, reaching for the nightstand. He extracts a small orange bottle, shakes out a pill, and dry-swallows it.
Concern flares inside me, but now is not the time to talk about his pill use.
When he settles back down, he puts an arm around me.
“I’m not used to seeing you so fired up,” he says quietly.
I shrug. “Yeah, well, I’ve had a lifetime of being her brother. It was bound to boil over at some point.”
Marcus’s fingers trace idle patterns on my arm.
“Thank you,” I say softly into the darkness.
Marcus’s fingers still. “For what?”
“For choosing me.”
He’s quiet for a moment. Shit. Have I overstepped by staying that?
Finally, his voice comes at me through the darkness. “It’s the least you deserve.”
The next day,I try to put the mess with Saskia out of my mind as Marcus and I drive to Mangawhai together. I’ve been looking forward to this for ages, wanting to bring Marcus to Mangawhai so he can see the fairy terns I’ve talked so much about. And now that my father is on the mend, I’m not concerned about being away for a night.
But it’s hard not to dwell on what happened with Saskia.
