Page 104 of They Break Beauty

Colton kissed my cheek, then pulled away, telling us, “I’ll head back and get it now. Mason’s still out at this fucked-up meeting.” He grasped Levi’s hand. “Brother, this violation isn’t gonna be the end of it.”

“It fucking is, believe me. But first thing’s first, get my laptop. If I step foot back home and Mason does walk in, all hell’s gonna break loose on my end, and that will delay me being able to pull all the shit he’s put out there in fucking cyberspace.”

“I know. But after you take care of this, you and me will go to Mason together. All right? Let me be there to minimize the fallout.”

Levi gave his hand a squeeze and smiled. “Of course. You’ve got it.”

With that, Colton smiled back at him, then headed on out of the apartment.

As Levi locked the door after him and turned back to me, I spoke, “You’re not going to wait for Colton to be there, are you?”

“No,” he seethed. “I’m not. Mason deserves my worst for all of this. Colt being there won’t allow that to be possible.”

“Because he has a soothing effect on you?”

A half-smile graced his lips. “You picked up on that already?”

“Well, I’ve been observing you from a distance ever since I realized your interest in me wasn’t going away.”

He came to me and wrapped his arms around me, holding me to him. “I’m sorry,” he breathed into my hair. “I’ll make it better. Don’t let him win. Don’t leave Stonewell. You belong here with me, Wildflower.”

I tightened my hold on him, feeling the vulnerability from him cutting at me. “I’m not going to let anyone force me from where I’ve chosen to be, where I want to be.”

“Good,” he said, nuzzling my neck. “Because I can’t lose you. I can’t go back to being in this alone. After all these years—”

“Shh,” I said, reaching up and cupping his face. “I feel the same.”

“You do?”

I nodded and stroked his skin that was hot to the touch, on account of him trying to reel in his anger with what had happened, what had been done to me, and the threat to driving us apart that he’d initially believed it to be. “Yes. We’ve both spent so much time drowning in what happened, having it eat at us. It was like poison, infecting us each and every day, in ways I wouldn’t even let myself acknowledge. I just kept shoving it down with keeping busy, reinventing myself, and with my meds. But seeing you again, growing closer and taking the leap to allow you in, it… it’s changed that… there’s hope now. Because you’re here with me, the only other person who knows what was done to us, who understands. Like you said, together we can find peace now.”

He smiled and stroked my back up and down, soothingly. “I’ll get Hex off your back.” His eyes darkened. “Even if I have to tear my way through Mason’s entire band of so-called soldiers to make it so.”

“I already struck back and it’s only made things escalate. Why don’t you level with Mason, tell him why you were really pursuing me, tell him the truth about the kidnapping?”

“I’ve kept it to myself for years. So have you. To suddenly reveal it, especially under these circumstances, it doesn’t sit right with me.”

“I get it, but if it gets to the point where you can’t reason with him without revealing the whole deal, you’re going to have to. We can do it together if that will make it easier. I just don’t want things spiraling out of control. More than they already have, anyway. Like I said, I already struck back myself and it clearly hasn’t stopped anything.”

“The fact you struck back is hot as fuck, by the way.”

“Come on.”

“I’m serious.” He cocked his head to the side. “What did you do?”

As we stood there in each other’s arms, I told him how I’d struck with the showers and the infestations, and his surprise gave way to a whole lot of admiration. Or, more like, adoration.

And as I spelled it out, recounting every little detail, and he hung onto my every word, I realized for the first time in years that I actually felt like myself.

More than that, I actually felt safe to be the real me.

The real me that had a much darker and harsher edge that meshed so well with the same in him.

21

~Levi~

She wanted me to reveal the twisted truth.

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