Page 81 of Only You
It felt like… more.
‘Why didn’t you tell Jack?’ she asked quietly. Demir sighed and she felt a pang of guilt. She knew that he didn’t want her to bring it up. It would be better for her to forget about it, but she couldn’t help it. She needed to know why this man who used to hate her – maybe still did – would keep her secret.
Protection always came with a price.
‘I couldn’t tell what scared you more: being attacked or Jack finding out.’
‘But… you don’t like me,’ she pointed out.
‘I’m not cruel for sport.’ He turned towards the city, his hand almost crushing the orange but stopping just before he did. Selene scoffed.
‘Plenty of men are.’ She wrapped her arms around herself tightly.
‘Well, not me,’ Demir told her, popping another orange slice in his mouth. ‘My social skills ain’t that bad.’
Selene opened her mouth and thought better of it. Beyond arguing, Demir had never harmed her. He drew hard lines but was never malicious. Maybe that’s why it was so easy for her to defend him to Jack. He plucked another orange slice, and Selene’s hand shot out to steal it.
‘Hey!’
‘You won’t miss it,’ she dismissed. ‘And if I do?’
‘It went to a good cause.’ She winked, and there was a small thrill that went through her as she saw his eyes linger. It was good to know that she could get his attention, no matter how short-lived the moment was.
‘You’re trouble,’ he murmured.
‘At least I’m fun.’
‘I hope you do believe me, I’ve given you my heart…’ Nat King Cole sung, and a sense of calm fell over her.
‘I like it here.’
Demir chuckled. ‘It’s a shit apartment,’ he said.
Selene scooted closer until their shoulders touched. ‘I like ithere,’ she emphasised.
Demir paused and a small smile formed on Selene’s lips as she looked at the building across the alley. Beneath them, people walked by and sirens sounded somewhere in the city. It was far from peaceful, but something about it soothed her.
She was so caught up taking it all in that she almost missed it when he said, ‘Me too.’
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Detroit
June 1946
The streets of Detroit were busy under the gloomy sky that had hidden the sun for hours. The bustling crowd of people was on their way home, to the store, or their second job, with cars in the street honking as they raced from one point to another. There was so much activity, you could get lost in it as people hurried away from the slim possibility of rain. It was Demir’s favourite kind of day.
Well, except for one thing.
‘Why are we here again? The last thing I wanna do is walk around.’ Demir held back a sigh as Selene whined.
‘Because I can’t sit in the house and listen to the radio all day. I need to move around to stay healthy. Shouldn’t you know that, doc?’
Selene rolled her eyes. ‘Of course, I know that. I just prefer to ignore it.’
‘God forbid I take your big head out your books.’ Demir picked up his pace little by little until Selene was lagging behind.
She scowled at him, speeding up. ‘Those books are why I can patch you up, so watch it,’ she snipped. ‘And my head is not big!’
