Page 15 of Come Inside

Waking up, I blinked my eyes blearily and stared up at the ceiling. The room was too fucking bright, and I felt like a used tampon.

Disgusting, needing a change, and to be thrown away.

Ew.

Never drinking again.

The lie swirled through my mind as I attempted to get up, except I was locked down by restraints. Before the panic settled in, I turned my head and found Kazi’s face, his long lashes, his eyes closed in sleep.

I almost shut my own again, but then I realized there were too many restraints and something warm pressing into my other side.

“You’re awake.” The familiar deep husky voice was muffled by my hair, but a moment later I was being yanked away from Kazi.

“Mateo,” I acknowledged while he settled me on top of him, my hands landing on his bare chest. Straddling him stretched my legs almost to the point of pain, but I ignored it. His deep mahogany eyes were pulsing with emotion.

“You remember my name.” He grinned up at me, shifting his hold until one hand gripped my hip bone and the other swept my hair back. “I was afraid you would forget it.”

The daylight was streaming into the room, and with it, I was able to fully take in Mateo’s appearance. That he was clearly a bit older, that there was darkness swirling in his eyes, that scars littered his face. On him, the scarsdidn’t look like imperfections, instead they were accessories he wore. He was incredibly handsome and being on top of him was causing unwanted feelings to stir in my gut.

For the second time in as many days, I found someone new I was uncharacteristically attracted to.

A short beard covered his strong jawline, and I reached a hand absentmindedly to stroke it. The scratchiness tickling the pads of my fingers.

His face darkened. “Be careful Yara.”

His words knocked me out of the trance I had fallen into and I went to jump off of him, but in doing so, my arm hit his.

I hissed in pain. “What did I do?” I couldn’t recall hurting myself and the long sleeve I wore was covering the area.

Mateo’s eyes darkened. “Cut your arm.”

I remembered most everything from last night, but that incident was not coming to the front of my mind.

I would have to investigate the injury later.

“Well…” I drew the word out. “It was nice to meet you, but I really need to get into work, I have a million things to do. I guess I’ll catch you around.” I lifted my fist up.

“What are you doing?” He raised an eyebrow.

With my other hand, I grabbed his bulky arm and raised it before sliding to his hand. I folded his fingers until he formed a fist and then tapped it with my own. “Fist bumping you?” The duh was evident in my tone.

He began to shake under me, his eyes crinkling in laughter, leading to crows feet that further showed his older age. “Can’t say I’ve used my fist like that before.”

“Fucking hilarious, come here Miss Yara, let’s get you off the big scary man.” Kazi was officially awake and tugged me off of Mateo into his arms, hugging me lightly from behind.

It wasn’t anything new, Kazi lived with me and oftentimes, if I had a nightmare or couldn’t sleep, I would crawl into his bed. I did it so much that eventually we got rid of the second bed altogether.

“So how are you cousins exactly?” They looked literally nothing alike.

“My fathe—”

“His sis—”

They began to speak at the same time.

“Uhuh.” I wriggled out of Kazi’s arms. “So, ‘cousins.’ Alrighty then.” I got up off the bed and scanned the room for my shoes. “What happened to the TV?”

Kazi and Mateo exchanged a look this time before talking, Kazi gave a slight shake. “You knocked into it, it’s how you cut your arm.”

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