Page 119 of Obsession

I could hear his heart pounding. Whatever the real reason for my fear might have been, I was relieved to see him unharmed.

“How did you manage to climb up here?” I asked, looking down over the balcony.

“You do know there’s a ladder under the plant, right?” He grinned, and I let out a slightly amused gasp.

It seemed that this plant was indeed useful, but not in the way I had imagined. I had to get rid of it.

“I am really sorry,” he whispered again, more seriously than before.

The closeness became too much for me again, and I tried to move away, but I noticed a slight glow on his cheek. The light was dim, and as I tried to adjust my sight, I saw what looked like a scratch on his skin.

Instinctively, I reached for it and traced it with my fingertip.

“What’s this?” He touched his face, feeling over the injury he did not seem to know about.

“Nothing, probably just a scratch from the fight I had with Jay after he lost the game.”

He could find an explanation for everything, but his eyes didn’t lie as much as he did. I was sure he was hiding something, but I decided to let it go for now. It was clear that he wasn’t goingto tell me the truth anyway, and I’d had enough of the lies. All I wanted was for him to stop the doll from crying and leave so I could finally go to sleep.

I couldn’t get his voice from the phone call out of my head: anxious, angry, serious. And the sounds that had surrounded him seemed far too real to have come from a video game.

He walked slowly past me and entered my room, while I felt my fingers, which had touched his wound, slightly damp.

I followed him in and watched intently as he took the doll off the bed and silenced it by pressing his finger on the designated square. Ah, how sweet the silence was.

He smiled as he looked at the doll and carefully placed it back on the bed before turning his attention back to me.

In the light, the scratch was more visible and drops of blood were forming on the fresh wound. I stepped closer to him and scrutinized him. He was annoying me, lying to me, but I couldn’t leave him like that.

I walked past him and tried to leave the room, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him.

“Katherine, scold me, insult me, hit me…. I deserve it, but please, don’t treat me with indifference,” he spoke and the sadness in his tone surprised me.

He pressed his forehead to mine, and I swallowed, taken aback by his words and gesture. I’d never seen him so affected by my reactions, and it was the first time I hadn’t shown him how angry he actually made me.

“He knows what he’s doing, he’s going to mess with your brain in ways you can’t even imagine.”I remembered Kristen’s words, but since I was repeating the same mistakes, I ignored them. Placing a palm on his massive chest, I slowly pushed him toward my bed and made him sit down.

“I’ll do that later,” I said, looking down at him, eliciting a smile.

I left the room and went to the bathroom in the hallway. Luckily, I had a fireman for a father, so the first aid kit was a must for him. I took out a few bandages and a bottle of disinfectant, closed the lid and put it back in the cupboard.

Back in my room, Harris was waiting on the bed, just as I had left him.

I walked over to him, bit my lip, and got down on my knees in front of him, then opened the lid of the bottle and the strong smell of alcohol hit me.

I grabbed his chin and turned his face to the left side so that I could easily clean his wound.

The blood had started to drip down to his neck. I pressed on the small abrasion a few times and he didn’t even react to the stinging. He watched me intently as I cleaned him. Too attentively. I felt scary weird in this position, and the room seemed to get even hotter. I had to move between his legs to get closer to his face. His hands were on his knees, uncharacteristically docile, while I did what I had to do.

As soon as I finished cleaning the abrasion and tried to stand up, his arms wrapped around my waist like two chains.

I had fought so hard not to open my mouth, not to ask any questions about Tristan. We both stood up, his fingers tangled in my hair, and he looked at me like he was seeing me for the first time.

“You defended me. You said I was with you for at least an hour.”

My breath caught in my throat for a moment. He brought it up so brutally, as if he’d just been waiting for me to bring it up, and he was losing his patience.

I bit my lip and nodded, Harris moving closer to me, so close I could feel his whisper on my face.

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