Page 168 of A Love Like Venom

His lips form a firm line as his facial expression hardens. Those hazel eyes that were unreadable turn dark. "No. My father made sure of that at a young age. Physical pain is nonexistent to me."

Is it possible for a heart to hurt so much for a person that it feels like it's bleeding because mine does. Comforting him in the only way I know how I bring his wounded hands to my lips and kiss the back of his hands softly. I hear the swift intake of breath from him as I do.

"I'm sorry, Reed."

"Don't be," he tells me but that is something that I can not do. Then he removes his one hand from mine and points it at his chest. Exactly where his heart lies beneath. "This is the only thing that can cause me pain. And you are the only person capable to do such damage."

Tears press at the back of my eyes while emotions clog in my throat. I place my hand over his not caring about his blood marring my skin. Taking his other hand I place it over my heart. "And you are the only person mine beats for. Whatever troubles you are facing I don't want you to doubt my love for you. Yourheart I would never destroy. Since the age of seven I knew I would treasure it, always."

He brings his forehead down to rest on mine. Just for a moment in time we breathe each other in. The world around us falls away. "I never want to lose you."

"You never will," I promise him.

"I hope so, Alice, I really do because I can't survive without you. I need you. I desperately need you more than you will ever need me. And if you were to leave . . . If you were to leave that will be the end of me."

I want to put his mind at ease. I want to relieve his heart from the misery. None of that I can do until he tells me what has him so conflicted. "Come on," I tell him gently. "I'll clean you up and you can tell me everything."

Without waiting for an answer with his hand in mine I lead him out of the gym and to his bedroom. Entering his bathroom he sits down on the lid of the toilet seat with his head bowed. Inside his medicine cabinet I search for the supplies to disinfect and cover his wounds.

Once I have everything gathered I run the water in the sink and soak a clean towel. The water is lukewarm to not agitate his wounds. Regardless of if he feels pain or not I never want to be the one who inflicts it upon him.

"Here." I place the towel on his hands gently. I do my best in wiping the excess blood before I begin to disinfect.

"You remember the last time you did this?" He asks softly.

I remove the towel from his hands and grab another. Nodding my head at him I reply with a small smile, "I do. First day of high school and the boys wouldn't stop making fun of me. If I remember correctly you earned detention for a month."

I manage to get a genuine smile out of him. "They were lucky I didn't do worse."

"I think breaking their noses and giving them black eyes was enough to stamper their egos."

He grunts. "Should have broken their jaws for talking to you like that. Would have made them think twice before speaking ever again."

"Well you did enough that they didn't bother me anymore. No guy did after that day. You scared them all. The girls on the other hand, they proved to be more vicious." High school was a dreadful experience. Girls hated me because of my sister. She made sure to label me an outcast and she succeeded. As if she didn't make my life at home bad enough. Caitlin always did have a specialty for making my life hell.

Until nightfall came.

When the stars blanketed the night sky I found my happiness. When I laid down next to a certain boy I found serenity. It was enough, it was more than enough. And just that gave me the strength to survive another day.

That's why for as much as I hated him I could never stop loving him.

"And yet you have forgiven me for the pain I've caused you," he says it like he still can't believe it.

Using the clean towel I soak it with peroxide to help disinfect his wounds. Before I apply it to his hands I spare a glance at him. "You have caused much more good in my life than pain. But you know this already." I hover the towel soaked with peroxide over his hands. "This might sting," I warn him.

Placing the rag on his busted knuckles he doesn't even hiss nor does he wince. He remains the same. The sting that I know comes with disinfecting doesn't affect him at all.

"I never met someone as good as you."

"Sure you have," I counter. He raises a brow. "You are surrounded by them everyday. These people here care about you. They are just as good as you think I am."

"But they don't know all of me. Not like you do."

Once the peroxide has done its work I remove the towel from his hands. They're free from blood now but the open cuts will need closure to heal. As I'm grabbing the ace bandage wraps I reply, "That's because you never gave them the chance to."

"Maybe because I knew the only person who needed to know all of me was you."

I smile at that but shake my head. Wearing a mask for too long can change you but it can also protect you. No one can get close. And if no one can get close then they don't have the ability to hurt you. "These people deserve to know the real you. After all, that's the man I'm in love with."

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