Page 158 of Watch Me Burn
“I feel safer with you than I ever have with anyone.” I pause, meeting his gaze.
He holds up my coat, and I slip my arms into it. “Maybe safety isn’t about being with someone who’d never hurt you. Maybe it’s about being with someone who could destroy you but chooses not to.”
The truth of it resonates in my bones. I’m just as complicit as he is now. Damien could ruin my life with a single decision. And I could ruin his just as easily. We hold each other’s fate in our hands, and that mutual vulnerability creates a foundation stronger than any built on comfortable lies or convenient half-truths.
Outside his windows, the early afternoon light paints the world in shades of gold and possibility. Somewhere out there, my former life continues without me. But the Luna who believed in black and white morality, who never would have understood how love and violence could coexist in the same breath, is gone now.
In her place stands someone new. Someone who looks at the man across from her and sees both monster and savior. A woman who’s made peace with the blood on her hands and the choices that put it there, who’s chosen darkness with open eyes and called it love.
I turn to him and press the front of my body against his, needing the contact. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For trusting me enough to show me the truth. For giving me the choice instead of making it for me.”
He wraps his arms around me, leaning down to bury his face in my neck, his breath warm against my skin. His chest expands against mine as he inhales, like he’s trying to capture my scent and lock it somewhere deep inside him.
“I love you, little doe.”
The nickname that once irritated me now feels like an endearment, a reminder of what we’ve survived to get here.
“I love you too.” I press a kiss over his heart. “Every stalking, spying, murderous, obsessive, possessive, controlling piece of you.”
Chapter forty-two
Damien
Achirp comes from inside Luna’s purse, and she steps out of my arms to retrieve it. Athena rises from her bed and waddles over to me. I crouch to scratch behind her ear. I’d risen before sunrise and fed her, then let her out, but she’s restless and ready for some attention.
“Shit.”
“What?”
I walk up behind Luna and peek over her shoulder. She has eleven text messages and five missed calls.
“I don’t know, but I have to get home now.”
She dials Maren’s number as we get in the car, cringing when her friend’s voice comes through after only one ring.
“Well, well, well. Look who finally remembered she has a phone. That dick better have fucked you until your head popped off your shoulders because that’s the only acceptable excuse for ghosting me all morning.”
Even though she’s not on speakerphone, every word echoes in the car because Maren only has one level. Loud.
“I’m sorry, Mar. We lost track of time.”
“Is that what the kids are calling it these days?” Maren snorts. “You’re lucky I stayed here last night. I rolled on over to check the critters around six this morning because I couldn’t sleep anymore, and Ricky has learned how to open his cage door.”
“I was afraid of that. What did he do?”
“He got into the fridge, ate my stash of blueberries, all the bananas, the turkey sandwich I left here yesterday, which had avocado on it, and now he’s got diarrhea.”
“Oh, Rick.” Luna’s head falls back against the seat.
I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing. It’s not funny. But it is.
“Oh, and he figured out how to turn on the TV in the lobby, and it was blasting Game of Thrones. All the inside critters were awake and in a ruckus. I’ve finally got everyone settled, but we’re going to need to order more Gabapentin because I went through a lot of that shit calming everybody down today.”
“Mar, I’m so sorry.”
