Page 90 of Devilish Ink

“I’m right next door if you need me.”

She still didn’t answer.

It was only when I heard her shower running that I turned back to my apartment.

I lay in bed for a long time, listening through the walls for sounds of her moving around her room as she readied for bed.

How long was she going to keep this wall up between us? How long until she accepted that she was mine and I was hers?

How much longer did I have to keep fighting that part of Ryleigh that had one foot out the door?

What did I have to do to make her trust that I was not leaving her, ever? That I was her family. Would she ever let me in, fully let me in?

I was awake for hours, thinking about all these things, long after the creaks of her tossing and turning in bed stopped.

So I was wide awake when she started screaming.

RY

Balor held me down as he unzipped his pants, pushing them down to his ankles, his cloying oppressive weight pressing down on me, his vile touch slimy against my raw bare skin.

His fingers closed over my mouth as I began to scream.

I heard the shattering of wood, the dreadful moan of splintering boards, as he kicked through my door. I tore at the sheets and begged my sleep-heavy limbs torun.

He loomed tall and imposing in the doorway for only a second before lunging for me. Squeezing my eyes shut, I screamed and begged myself to disappear from this nightmare.

Instead I was pulled from the sheets. I fought the monster trying to pull me into his lap.

Liam’s voice broke through, calling my name again and again.

“I’m here. I’m here, baby. You’re safe.”

I clung to him, my face buried into his neck, his familiar scent breaking through to me.

Liam was here.

I was safe.

The adrenaline draining from my body left me paralysed. Myonly movements were involuntary trembles as the tears streamed down the sides of my face.

“Liam?” I whispered, finding it hard even to move my lips.

My fingers curled into his hair, his torso bare, the heat rolling off him like a balm.

Liam pulled me in tighter against him.

“I—” Liam’s voice came out as a hoarse croak.

If I didn’t know any better, I would have assumed that he’d been the one who had been screaming his lungs out.

Taking a shuddering breath, he tried again, “I— Ry, I’ve never,never— I’ve had some of the darkest moments a person can have… I—I’ve felt like the whole world was hopeless, nothing but a black pit I couldn’t possibly claw my way out of, but… Ry, I’veneverfelt fear like when I heard you scream like that before.”

He shuddered again. I wondered if he was feeling what I was feeling. Like he was thawing out.

“I thought someone was attacking you. Hurting you.Killingyou.”

My chest against his chest as I huddled against him, ankles crossed behind his back, arms stretched round his ribcage.

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