Page 99 of A Love Like Venom

Everything will be easier.

Without him I was suffocating, slowly losing the air that my lungs could hold.

Life without him was about survival.

Life with him reminds me what life should be about, living.

You see, I can survive without him, I can endure whatever life throws at me, but I choose to live in a world where he is in it.

Because a world without him is an endless black sky.

Finding my voice I whisper, “I’m sorry.” I feel slightly embarrassed and a dash of shame. I avoid his gaze. My eyes now on the placement of our hands. His large and rough compared to my small and smooth.

Tipping my chin up our eyes reconnect. He swallows before saying, “You have nothing to apologize for. Don’t ever say you’re sorry.”

“It’s just-” I want to say embarrassing, but he quickly interrupts me.

“There’s nothing wrong for feeling the way you do, angel. If I could kill him again I would. And as for him,Razor,”he pauses and I see his eyes turn sinister, “he’s going to wish he never laid a hand on you.”

My hand that lays over his heart grasps his shirt tightly. And I know I shouldn’t feel this way, the burning anger I have inside of me. The need to see him in pain. To watch his eyes widen in terror. For fear to finally be instilled in him. I shouldn’t wish for his demise, but I want it anyways.

I want Razor to be rotting in Hell where he belongs.

“You promise?” My voice goes low with a harsh bite.

He smiles at me, but it isn’t kind. It’s a smile that is nothing but malicious. “I promise you, Alice Hall, that fucker is going to be begging for death by the time I’m finished with him.”

It calms the anger inside me. Simmers down the fire that burns my skin.

Reed’s darkness calls to me in a way that is soothing.

With him I know that I will be safe, protected.

It’s in his darkness that I am not afraid.

Him basking in my light shows that he’s not afraid either.

A beautiful eclipse him and I are.

“You’re smiling.” He points out with a smile of his own. This one more lighthearted.

I don’t even realize that I am until I feel the burn in my cheeks. Moving my hand from his chest I go to cup the right side of his face. He leans into my palm automatically. I don’t even think he realizes that he does it. It’s become second nature to him.

My heart warms of the fact.

“I’m just happy you’re back.”

His eyes close for a moment before he opens them. When they meet mine I can see the flicker of emotions passing through them. “I don’t deserve to be,” he begins gruffly. I’m about to argue with him but he continues, “but I will spend the rest of my life making up for everything I put you through. I may not be that man you once knew but I can be someone better. I can be someone better for you.”

All my heartstrings pull as my breath catches in my throat. Butterflies, the kind you think only belong in movies and books swarm in my stomach.

Raising myself forward I bring my forehead to press against his.

His hand then snakes around the back of my neck and he grips it firmly. We breathe each other in. In our own bubble it’s as if the rest of the world doesn’t exist.

There is only him and I.

“You don’t have to change for me. I’ve always accepted you the way that you are.”

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