Page 80 of Under the Texas Sky
He hasn’t traveled much besides Arizona, and I silently vow to change that. Trent is going to see the world, and I’m going to be by his side to do it.
His favorite color is green, and by the way his face flames when he says it, I know he’s thinking about my eyes. My face matches his when I tell him gold, just because when the light hits his dark eyes just right, it looks like sections of honeycombs embedded in the depths of his irises.
“Favorite TV show?” he asks, offering me a bite of chocolate. I wrap my lips around it and tease my tongue against the tips of his fingers. His eyes blaze with lust and a giddy feeling fills me.
“Law and Order, but it has to be SVU. Nothing else compares. What is yours?”
Before, he wouldn’t have said anything because he didn’t like TV shows. He preferred movies.
“Mine is also Law and Order SVU. When did you start watching it? You used to be obsessed with old sitcoms.”
“Truth?” I ask, scared to say what needs to be said, but even more scared for what’s going to come after. He nods, holding mygaze. “I started watching it after I left. The old sitcoms hurt too much to watch. So I needed something vastly different.”
“Mine’s kind of the same, kind of different,” he says. “I was watching reruns, and after one of the episodes, I didn’t change the channel. Law and Order SVU was the next show up, so I fell down a rabbit hole. I bought all of the seasons on DVD so I could watch them whenever I wanted.”
“Let me know when you’re free next,” I tell him, “and I want to have a watch-a-thon with them. Starting at season one and working our way through.”
“You know there’s like… twenty or so seasons, give or take.” He looks skeptical, but hopeful at the same time.
“Guess you’ll have to stock up on peanut butter and jelly before I come over.”
“Deal.” He maneuvers until he’s lying flat on his back, and tucks a pillow under his neck. I cuddle up to him, throwing my leg over his waist and tucking myself into the crook of his neck.
The moment is perfect. The perfect ending to the perfect date. But even at the end of an amazing day, nothing can stay perfect for long.
“Can I ask you something?” I whisper, my lips ghosting across the skin of his neck, feeling the pulse thundering there.
“Of course, you can ask me anything, Freckles.” There’s that nickname I love so much from his perfectly pink, pouty lips.
“Why did you do it?”
The air around us is sucked out, leaving us in nothing but choking silence.
I don’t think he’s going to answer, but then his breathing stops, and I chance a peek at him to see his eyes squeezed shut.
CHAPTER 63
TRENT
“Why did you do it?”
Pain radiates through every atom in my body, reverberating and taking no hostages in its grip.
Why did I do it? I knew the question was going to come sooner or later, but I'm not prepared. I doubt I will ever be prepared enough for this.
There’s no good answer for him, but we promised each other we would only give the truth. I owe him that much.
“Can we sit up?” I ask, because I need to brace myself for his rejection after this, after hearing what really happened that night. He’ll never be able to look at me the same.
He raises up, and I follow suit. He still holds my hand in his, keeping it clasped tightly while I struggle to find the words.
“That night was…” I trail off, because I don’t know enough words to explain how terrible that night was for me. And by default, Kian.
“Sunshine, whatever it is, you can tell me.”
My eyes water, and the comfort I feel from him shouldn’t be mine to take.Sunshine.He seriously wants to call me sunshine when I feel like a thunderstorm about to come through and destroy everything in my path.
“I let him kiss me. I don’t know why I did, but with the alcohol and the loneliness, it was just too much. And that’s notan excuse, not at all. There’s nothing I can say to express howfucking sorryI am for what I did. I let him kiss me, and I wish I could change it.” I take a deep breath, because I know this isn’t the worst part of the story either. “I didn’t know it at the time, but he put something in my drink. I don’t remember anything after the bartender brought me a water.”
