Page 37 of Stitches

What should I call you like this? Because it’s not you.

He leaned in and whispered in my ear.“Mirage.”

“Are you always Mirage like. . .this?”I still didn’t understand how he knew what I was thinking. All I knew was that if I didn’t want him in my head, he couldn’t be. And that frustrated him.

“Yes,” he murmured, circling me slowly.

Shivers raced over my skin when he stopped behind me on the second circle, his lips at my ear again.

“I dream of you every night. You dream of me too.”

I swallowed thickly and remained silent.

“You think of me when they touch you. I’m always on your mind.”

Again, I closed my eyes. His warm hands rested on the tops of my arms, and he squeezed me gently.

“You’re still mine, aren’t you?”

I shook beneath his hold, hating the thoughts in my head because they were so confusing to me. I shouldn’t think them. I shouldn’t feel them, yet there they were. Bold and very much there.

“Answer me,” he said, his voice so low and dangerous that it made my heart jump in my chest.

I turned in his hold and stared up at him wordlessly. Carefully, I reached out and traced my fingers lightly against the white of the mask. Down to the opening where his jaw and lips were exposed.

He parted his lips as I gently ran my fingers along them.

Slowly, I went up on my tiptoes and kissed the corner of his lips. A small taste. An inhale of his rich scent. So very. . .Mirage. So very much a secret that could get us both killed.

I lingered for a moment before I pulled away from him, the distance sending a wave of cold through my body.

“Don’t go,” he called out, his voice trembling. “Please. Stay with me.”

I paused and bit my bottom lip.

He closed the space between us, his lips crushing mine beneath his deep, possessive kiss. I tried to push him off, but he tugged me closer, his hold on me tight, his lips demanding.

“Give yourself to me,” he whispered against my lips. “Sirena. Mine.”

I tried to fight him off, but he was insistent, his lips against mine.

“I need you,” he said. “I fucking need you. Please. Give me this.”

My heart ached at his words.

“Tell me you need me too. Please.” Another kiss on my stiff lips. “Sirena. Stop fighting the inevitable. Talk to me. Tell me you feel something. I hate that I can’t see you the way I want. I hate it. It’s killing me to be so close yet so far away.”

Another kiss from him. The same confused resistance from me.

“I won’t tell. I keep secrets too,” he whispered, resting his forehead against mine, the mask cool against my skin.

I closed my eyes, everything within me wanting to give in to him, but I couldn’t. In these woods, I was lost to the madness of my Mirage. I wasn’t myself. My brain wasn’t working. In his presence, I was lost to my feelings for him. Ones I knew really ruled me and I’d never be able to get rid of.

“Eventually, we will all be together. Church knows it,” he said softly. “Ashes knows it. Asylum. Stitches.Sin.”

I shivered at the mention of Sin’s name.

“He cares about you,” he continued. “He’s punishing himself. He was admitted into the facility overnight because of the cutting a few nights ago.”

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