Page 38 of Demons & Damnation

Kyla folded her arms over her chest and sat down on the stairs, resting her feet on the bottom step. Leaning down, she fiddled with the buckle on her high heels, trying to undo the strap.

Dylan reappeared and stepped through into the hallway, closing the front door behind him and locking it. He watched her struggle with the buckle, the delicate little pin wobbling and refusing to leave the small hole it had been shoved through in a hurry earlier that evening.

“For fucks sake,” she yelled, yanking at her shoe and forcing it off her foot without undoing it.

“Do you want some help?” Dylan asked.

Kyla threw her shoe away from her, not in any intended direction, just away from her. It smacked Dylan square in the knee, but he said nothing.

“Ky?”

“No,” she said, wrenching her other shoe off without undoing it. When the pin snapped, she launched the shoe at the front door, hoping the damn thing would break.

Dylan resisted the urge to smile. He knew that would be the end of him if he did. “I think someone else needs some tension easing.”

Kyla snapped her eyes to his, narrowing them at him. “The only thing I need easing is the fucking pressure you’re putting on me. You’re like Gordon fucking Ramsey cranking the heat up in this frickin’ pressure cooker, Dylan. You’ve got to stop it.”

Dylan raised an eyebrow at her. “Ky, I’ve said nothing since this morning. This is all in your head.”

Kyla jumped to her feet and took two steps back, standing on the step that allowed her to be at the same head height as him. “Don’t you fucking gaslight me, Mohun. I am not crazy, I know damn well what’s happened today.”

Dylan lifted his hands in a surrender sign and took a step back. “Ky, I’ve said nothing more since I left you this afternoon. Have I?”

Thinking over the day’s events, over and over, Kyla said nothing for a good two minutes before she realised she had to admit defeat. “No,” she said, her voice quiet. “You haven’t.”

“So all this pressure you’re feeling in your head, it’s not from me, sweetheart. My foot is firmly off the accelerator. You made your feelings very clear earlier today. If all I get of you is this then I’m happy with that because it’s better than nothing.”

“But your behaviour earlier, Dylan, you looked like a jealous boyfriend. Those guys didn’t deserve that.”

Dylan sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly as he contemplated his words, picking them very carefully. “Did I look like a jealous boyfriend? Or did I look like a protective friend who wants something more? Kyla, you don’t know those two guys. They clearly are very interested in you, and my sister, and I don’t like the energy they give off. There’s something not right with them. Above all else, I don’t want you to end up with another Tony.” He took a breath and continued. “And those guys, Ky, those guys have all the feels of Tony, and then some. So yeah, I did the whole protective thing. Not because I want them to think you’re mine, but because I want them to know that if they even think of doing something to hurt you, they will have hell to pay, and then me.”

Kyla let his words soak in, letting them register one by one. She didn’t know what to respond to first. Her defensive, aggressive part wanted to pick at him and argue he was twisting her frame of mind, trying to manipulate her into thinking his agenda was neutral and innocent when it was the opposite.

However, her other side, the side Dylan seemed to be slowly chipping away at, believed him completely and softened even more at the sentiment his words carried.

“I don’t know what to say to that,” she whispered.

“I’m not asking you to say anything. I’m just asking you to listen...with this,” he said, tapping his index finger over his heart.

Tears sprung to her eyes in an instant. “I can’t,” she whispered.

Dylan closed the gap between them, his toes meeting the bottom step. “Why not?”

Kyla closed her eyes, squeezing her tears free. “Because if I do, I’ll end up broken all over again.”

Dylan climbed the stairs and wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling his face into her hair. He inhaled deeply, revelling in her familiar pomegranate shampoo. “I think you’re still broken, sweetheart. I think you’re still waiting for someone to put you back together but you’re afraid if you let them close enough to do that then they’ll be close enough for you to fall in love with.”

Kyla nestled her head on his shoulder, resting her left cheek on his broad muscles, staring numbly at her hallway wall. His words struck a chord deep in her soul. He was right, without a doubt he’d hit the nail on the head.

After a minute or so, she said, “I can’t do that to you, Dylan.”

“Do what?” He squeezed her tighter.

“I can’t let you fix me.”

Pressing a kiss to the side of her head, he asked, “Why?”

Lifting her head from his shoulder, she touched their noses together and replied, “Because then you’ll be broken too.”

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