Page 191 of The Invite
He whips around, and grits out, “Someone kidnapped, tortured, and destroyed your life, and your parents didn’t give a fuck?”
“It… it doesn’t matter. What’s done is done.”
“It fucking matters, Nessa,” he roars. “You’re still not okay. It took a single glance to know you carry a heavy weight on your shoulders.”
“I deserve it. It was all my fault.” I swallow the lump forming in my throat, and whisper, “I should’ve listened to him, but I just wanted to feel like a normal teenager and break the rules. My selfishness cost him his life.”
In a flash, Augustus crosses the room to my side and grabs my face. With the softness he reserves just for me, he consoles, “You couldn’t have known something terrible would happen, honey.”
A hollow laugh slips past my lips. “I’ve always been smart, I should’ve had a sixth sense or something.”
“Intelligent or not, you were still an innocent kid.”
“An innocent kid wouldn’t have killed her boyfriend.”
“You had no choice,” says Augustus fiercely. “You did the right thing by ending his suffering. If he were here, he’d tell you the same thing.”
“But he’s not. I shouldn’t be either.” Guilt gnaws at my insides, killing me slowly. “I was supposed to die with—”
“Don’t you dare.” Augustus cuts me off as if even hearing it is too much. My eyes are held captive when I lock them with his. “Your life wasn’t supposed to end with his. Want to know why?”
“Why?”
“Because it’s tethered to mine.” The conviction in his deep timbre sets me ablaze. “It begins and ends with me.”
I shiver when his lips press against my cheeks, tasting my agony and replacing it with a flicker of hope.
“You didn’t lose your way in the woods that night, you were just making your way to me, and I was always supposed to catch you. I knew it right then.”
Our breaths mingle as I whisper, “How?”
“Because it wasn’t fear I first saw in your eyes, little prey. It was fire. The flames so bright, they set fire to my dead soul. It’s why I had to have you. So, my heart felt something other than an icicle lodged inside my chest.” Taking my wrist, he splays my palm open in the middle of his chest. Covering it with his, he presses hard over the thudding beats. “It beats only when you’re near.”
“Oh, August,” I choke out.
“You filled the hollowness inside and made it yours. I feel all your emotions like they’re my own. Your heart, your soul, your life… they’re all linked to mine. Never doubt if you’re meant to be here because the answer is yes.”
I throw myself into his arms, believing every word to the marrow of my bones.
CHAPTER – 48
Nessa
“If you have triggers, I need to know about them. At least the ones you’re aware of,” Augustus softly demands after an hour of us quietly lying side by side. “You had me terrified, and that was before I felt you pass out in my arms.”
“I hate firearms and sounds that resemble a gunshot.”
“Anything else?”
“You already know the rest.” As my mind whirls for something else that might trigger me, one thing comes to mind. Pushing past the nervousness, I stare at his chest as I say, “August… I know you’re adventurous in bed but I… I don’t think I can handle bondage.”
“Nessa.” He waits until I meet his gaze before he vows, “I won’t ever do it. And if there’s anything else we do that makes you scared, all you have to say is your safe word and I’ll stop, no questions asked.”
“Thank you.”
With a hand under my knee, he pulls me flush against him with my head tucked under his chin. An arm rests as my makeshift pillow while the other draws lazy circles on my waist. Goosebumps rise on my flesh when I feel his heartbeat is as unsteady as mine, clueing me in to his lingering apprehension.
I raise my chin and he looks so unsettled that it makes me want to hug him.
