Page 46 of Not Your Hero

“Gannix, the scars ... Some are still healing, and I can only imagine what they look like,” she tells me. My heart leaps into my throat. I thought about the scars showing on her back, but that’s also why I bought her a wrap to wear over the dress if she’d prefer.

“You’d hide them?” I ask her. Something in her eyes flashes with darkness before she stands up a little taller and shakes her head.

“No. I wouldn’t hide them. I didn’t put them there. Why should I hide what was done to me?”

“Are you embarrassed?”

“Are you? Are you embarrassed to be seen with me like this?” I reach out for her and spin her around, facing away from me. It’s not like you can see all the scars on her back because there is a back to the dress, but some still peek out around the fabric. I reach up and run my fingers over the ones that can be seen, and Emerson shudders at my touch.

“Why would I be embarrassed?” I ask her, my fingers still lingering on her flesh.

“Because I’m not perfect.” Her words nearly break my fucking black soul.

“You are perfect.”

“No, I’m not.” She turns back to look at me now, and I can see the pain and hesitancy in her eyes.

“Who wants perfect, Emerson? Hmm?”

“Don’t you?”

“Why would I? I’m not perfect. Far from it,” I remind her.

“But look at you,” she states, waving her hand up and down to make her point. She’s wrong, and she couldn’t be more wrong.

“Don’t you think I drug you for a reason when I have sex with you?”

“Which is?” Now, I smile at her.

“I’m not going to tell you that. Not right now anyway,” I tell her.

“Do you think I’d look at you differently?”

“To be honest with you, I don’t think I could handle it if you did.”

“I wouldn’t.”

“I don’t know that for sure. And I can’t take that chance right now,” I admit to her.

“What would happen if I did?”

“I couldn’t keep you,” I whisper, not wanting that to happen. I want her. I want to keep her. Her eyes dance between mine, but she still doesn’t know what to say, so she simply nods her head.

With that, I offer her my hand and watch as she takes it in hers. I lead her out of the house and out to the waiting car, helping her inside.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel, Gannix.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re like him. You were there to kill, and then you took me. You keep my hostage in your house. And now we’re going out like a normal couple would. I don’t know what to think.”

“You think whatever you want, Em. The fact is, I want you with me in whatever way I can have you, and I plan on keeping it that way.”

“But what if I don’t want that?” she asks, and I smirk.

“Doesn’t matter to me what you want honestly.”

“So you’ll just keep me against my will?” she asks, looking over at me as the driver takes off.

---