Page 20 of Claiming Sarah

The floor drops from beneath me, and vertigo assails me, snatching at my limbs.

Dayton wraps both arms around me, keeping me upright, and for the first time that day, I inhale. Closing my eyes, I trace the notes in his scent. Pinecones. Vanilla. And something woodsy.

“You can’t keep me and expect a relationship, Dayton. I barely know you?—”

“My soul knows you!” he snaps, peering into mine. “Please. Before you, I rarely begged for anything. Give me achance, Sarah. You enjoyed it. You kissed me. Twice. That has to mean something.” Desperation and loneliness carve his face.

He’s mentally unwell, I remind myself, feeling my heart soften. He needs someone. A tear slips down my cheek. He stole me, hoping to have me find him someone. His brothers. More tears slip free. His brothers are just as traumatized and mentally unwell. He needs someone stable, someone… like me.

Am I honestly considering this? In nursing, I’ve learned that eyes rarely lie. It’s why liars either avoid eye contact to decrease the risk of outing themselves or force it to lend credibility to their words. A seasoned bullshit sniffer sees through it all.

Pain. Madness. And raw grief shines in Dayton’s eyes. There’s no denying he’s unstable, but he’s also hurting, all alone in this fire-scorched house. I brought Lauren home, recognizing someone who needed me while I could provide.

Dayton’s soul calls to mine in the same way, and I truly wish it didn’t. If I leave and run away in the middle of the night, I suspect it’ll haunt me as if I left my child behind. And I owe him for rescuing me from being assaulted.

“Ok, Dayton,” I say around sniffles. “No more chains, no more drugs, and no more lies. Deal?” He nods, face filled with earnestness. Schizophrenic. In other words, a child in need of guidance. Poor impulse control. Poor emotional regulation. He needs someone to teach him all of it.

It hits me that Icannotlet him eat my pussy again if I stay and help him. I’m definitely old enough to be his mother.

“No more touching,” I tack on, watching a scowl crawl across his lips.

“No,” he snaps, eyes shooting fire, fingers digging into my skin.

“Yes. It’s wrong?—”

“It does not feel wrong?—”

“That’s because you don’t know right from wrong!” My shout rings in the empty space, and I wince.Way to go, Sarah. Yell at the mentally unstable patient.

“Dayton, I didn’t mean to?—”

“Fine. Call your daughter, then call my brothers.” His hands release me, and I nearly stumble. His face shuts down, and the room feels colder for it. I feel like I kicked a puppy.

17

NO TOUCHING

ZAIDEN

Honesty is not the best policy, and I want to kill whoever invented the phrase if someone hadn’t beaten me to it. Sarah refused to step into the kitchen, forcing me to unravel the extra length of cord and hand it over at the threshold. She stared at me meaningfully, eyes suggesting I should trust her.

Grumbling, flanked by Blue and Red, I walk away, sitting on the bottom step a few feet away. She remains in my line of sight, but I’m far enough I can’t overhear their conversation. But I catch her shooting frequent glances at me, turning away with a blush.

“No touching.”

I detested the words the minute she uttered them. My mask remains in my hands, flipping from one to the other. She’s seen my face and hasn’t run, so there’s no need to continue to hide, even if I want to.

“No touching.”

What does that even mean? Twice, she gushed all over me. She kissed me, calming the chaos in my mind.Whycan’t I touch?It’s a stupid rule, and I’m uncertain if I’ll follow it.

Her feet pad over, and I’m on mine before she reaches me. A light pink adds color to her cheeks.

“Do you have a shower? One that won’t fall beneath me?” My head tilts. Why would a shower fall?

My head jerks upstairs, and I open my mouth to offer to carry her, but she’s shaking her head, staring at the pieces of the banister that crumbled. Oh, that’s why she’s worried about falling showers.

“I can carry you,” I offer, shrugging my shoulders when really I want to throw her over them, slide her scrub bottoms off, and play with her wetness again, hearing her moans directly in my ear. My cock twitches, something it never did before her.

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