Page 52 of His Captive

“Ethan. I’ve got to go.” Her hand shakes the handle of the door. She knows it sticks, she’s opened it countless times before, but tonight it’s her shaky hands that stops her.

“Damn door.” She slams it with her palm.

“Millie...” I start to try and explain.

“No. Stop. Stop talking Ethan.” The door opens and she all but falls out of the truck from the force she’s used to get away from me.

I jump out of my driver's seat, racing around, just managing to get to her before she opens her car door.

I cage her between my arms, resting my hands on the roof of her car.

“Please Millie, just listen to me,” I speak into the back of her head, begging her through the pain that is tearing my heart in half.

“No.” She spins around. Her eyes wild and full of pretty tears that up till now I’ve never once been the cause of.

I want to wipe them away, but they made her look so beautiful. Magnifying the crystal blue eyes beneath them, and leaving a glistening trail on her cheek as they streak over her face.

“You don’t get to do this Ethan, I’m getting married tomorrow.” She shakes her head defiantly.

“You don’t have to.” I push up her chin, forcing her to look at me.

“Yes, Ethan. I do.” Her sad eyes made contact with mine and I take a chance. Because I can’t not know how it feels to kiss her. I press my mouth to hers. At first her lips remained tense, and unresponsive. Then, just when I’ve given up hoping they start to move, opening just enough to make space for my tongue. And when I slip myself between them, the world around me stops. The traffic from the freeway silences. The warm summer air lifts and the threat of tomorrow no longer exists.

She kissed me back.

We take breath from each other until there’s none left between us and we’re forced to stop. And if I’d known what would happen when I pulled away I would have let myself suffocate.

“I’m sorry, Ethan,” she whispers, unable to look me in the eyes as she slides from between my arms and cracks opened her door, just managing to fit herself through the tiny gap before she slams it shut and starts up her engine.

“Just listen to me.” I raise my voice so she hears it through her window.

“I can’t.” She shakes her head.

“I will be there tomorrow.” I give her no choice. Shouting at her through the glass. “I have a full tank of gas, and if you don’t show at that church. I’m coming for you and I’m driving us out of this town for good. You have a choice. Do you hear me, Millie?”

She stares back at me, her eyes spilling more tears, and I press my hand against the glass of her window, desperate to comfort her.

Her hand touches the glass on the other side.

“I hear you, Ethan,” she says before she shifts in to reverse.

“You’ve always got a choice,” I reminded her one last time as I step back and watch her pull away from me.

I’ve done my part, and now I just have to wait and hope that she does hers.

I open my eyes, rest my elbows on my knees, and hang my head between them. The heavy stream of water hitting like glass shards hard against the back of my neck.

I’m fucking up, letting Lysetta dig into me deeper and deeper, I’m losing myself and becoming weak again. Letting him back in.

I’d shown her a little of the old me tonight, the liability that ceases to exist inside me these days.

I’ve convinced myself that her story is true. That she’s just an innocent girl caught up in a heap of trouble she couldn’t get herself out of.

I let myself believe it because it’s what I want to believe.

For all I know, she could be doing this on purpose. I have to suspect the way she takes everything so well. Maybe she’s already been trained for this, her virginity kept intact to make her story more believable. Maybe that is the reason I can’t seem to break her, because she has no limits to break.

None of it really matters, whether she’s lying or not, I can’t allow myself to get close to her. I can’t need her. Falling for her is completely off the fucking cards….

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