Page 78 of Drown in You

“No. I’m telling you, she wanted this. Just wait for her to wake up?—”

“Get the fuck out!” Fury blinded me. All I saw was black as I lunged at him and shoved.

“Sienna!” A small, husky voice called out in the dark. “No! Don’t!”

But it was too late. His foot caught on the ladder, and my lungs froze as his arms windmilled and he tumbled back, plummeting into the darkness.

He didn’t scream as he fell.

The next second, a sickening thud as his body hit the ground.

Juliet climbed onto wobbly legs, scrambling for the exit. “What did you do? He wasn’t doing anything wrong!”

“He had you unconscious!” The tears spilled down my cheeks, my heart breaking that I had to be the one to tell her what Marcus was doing to her. “He was...”

She shook her head adamantly. “He wasn’t! I wanted it like that. Fuck!”

Juliet scrambled down the ladder and screamed his name, shaking him. Marcus’s leg was bent at the wrong angle. My stomach turned and I heaved.

Now, my hands shake as I relive that night with Luke. “Juliet wanted to try breath play. He’d choke her until she was unconscious and stop until she came to. Then he’d do it again, if she told him to. She explained that to the police, so they didn’t press charges. She forgave me right away; she knew why I did what I did. But Marcus...” I squeeze my eyes shut, and Luke sits up, pulling me close. “The injuries he sustained to his leg and back were permanent. Physical therapy might help him, but he’ll never play football again. He had to give up his scholarship. He had to give up his team and his future. All because of me.”

Luke hooks his hand under my chin, forcing my gaze up to his. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Sienna. You did what any good person would’ve done in that situation. You thought you were witnessing a crime, and you stopped it. The fact that it was happening to your best friend made it that much worse.”

I shake my head. “I should’ve waited until she woke up. I should’ve waited ten more seconds. Then she could’ve explained and Marcus wouldn’t have gotten hurt?—”

“It’s not your fault.” His conviction breaks me, and I bury my head against his chest as a sob wracks through me. He wraps his arms around me tight, squeezing like he’ll never let me go. “If I’d walked in on anything like that happening to you...” He pauses, collecting himself as he swallows audibly. “I would’ve killed him.”

I cry harder. Too hard to speak. Luke Valentine would kill for me. Somehow, I didn’t need him to make the promise out loud to know he would.

“He’s the one who attacked you.” Luke’s voice is gentler now, even as a current of rage underlies his words. “You moved here to get away from him.”

I sniffle, managing to pull myself together enough to form watery words. “Yeah. Him and two of his friends. They attacked me in the park. But I left because they turned the whole town against me. Everyone saw him as the golden boy, the star athlete, and I was a nobody. I was just Juliet’s best friend, the poor girl with a single mom glomming onto the rich kids. Mom and I knew they wouldn’t get punished for what they did to me. They have family in law enforcement. Everyone in Wakefield sided with Marcus, and I became their villain.”

“Who gives a fuck what you are to them,” Luke says simply. “You’re a hero to Juliet. That’s what matters.”

“I’m not a hero to her.” I choke on the sob building up again. “I ruined her life. I ruined her chance with Marcus, and now she’s uprooted her whole life to come here with me. I’m a burden.”

A burden to Juliet, to my mother, to my father, to Deb, to Luke. To everyone.

Luke sits up, pulling me close until I’m straddling him. Our noses are inches apart as he holds my face with both hands. “You are not a burden, Sienna. Juliet moved here with you because she loves you. She’s your best friend, and I guarantee if the roles were reversed, she would’ve done the same thing. That’s why she followed you here—because you’re her best friend. And you proved it that night.”

My nose stings as I try to blink back the tears.

“I’m glad you’re here. Because if you didn’t leave Wakefield, I never would’ve met you.” His hand caresses my jaw, and his crystal-lined eyes trace my face. “And meeting you is the best thing that ever happened to me.”

I throw my arms around him, burying my face in his shoulder and losing myself again. I can’t remember the last time I cried this much, but a catharsis washes over me. Like I’ve been bottling up these tears for a lifetime and it feels so fucking good to finally let them out.

Meeting you is the best thing that ever happened to me. I think it might be the best thing that ever happened to me too. Luke makes me feel safer, sexier, happier than anyone else ever has. He makes me feel loved unconditionally.

And I think I’m starting to fall for him too.

“Morning, gorgeous.” The rumble of Luke’s morning voice blended with that tinge of a Southern accent makes my toes curl.

I’ve barely blinked awake before his hand caresses my jaw and he brings his lips down onto mine. Sunlight peeks around the edges of the blackout curtain. I wish we could stay here all day. Stay in this blissful bubble, where nothing and no one else exists.

His tongue slides past my lips and he flips me onto my back, sliding his hand down my stomach?—

A knock makes me yelp. “Sienna? Are you up?”

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