Page 51 of Incipient

He grunted, irritated. “He brought himself here.”

“You know what I mean,” I said, still not facing him as he fast-forwarded the movie to where we’d left off.

“You don’t have to apologize to me, Jemma, and never for something he did.”

I turned and met his eyes. “But he came here because of me—”

“He came here because he’s a bloodsucker with no humanity who decided to turn you into his pet project.” An angry frown tweaked his lips. “He’s lucky you’re stillin lovewith him or I would’ve ripped his heart out of his chest.”

My heart careened against my ribs as a heavy jumble of guilt and shame washed over me. As much as I tried to protect Trace, to keep the past hidden from him out of fear that it would break him, he knew a lot more than I gave him credit for and he was handling it surprisingly well considering. Perhaps I needed to remind myself that it was only the past that could hurt him. Not the present. Not the future.

“Thanks for not…killing him.”

He made another grunting noise, clearly not as pleased with the end result as I was.

Releasing the breath I’d been holding, I turned back to the tv and watched as Trace continued to fast-forward the movie in search of the part we’d left off on before Dominic interrupted us.

Of course, it wasn’t long before my gaze drifted back his way. I couldn’t help but notice the foot of space between us and wondered if he’d done that on purpose. With his legs crossed at his ankles, he was literally hugging the edge of the bed. I was certain that if he so much as sneezed the wrong way, he’d tumble right the hell off.

“Do you want to share the blanket?” I asked, hoping that my offer might coax him closer and maybe squash that guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was bad enough that I’d already taken over his house and his bed, now I was even hogging his nice plush comforter. The least I could do was offer to share. It was the decent,friendlything to do.

His stormy eyes lifted to mine and stayed there as though he were trying to unriddle me. “You sure that’s a good idea?”

I honestly wasn’t sure of anything anymore, but I picked up the edge of the blanket and inched it to him anyway.

With his eyes moored to mine, he accepted the offer and slid under the comforter with me. While he wasn’t close enough to touch me, but body still hummed contentedly at his proximity as I turned my attention back to the television screen, vaguely aware that he was still staring at me.

After a moment, he pressed the play button and the movie continued right where we’d left off.

With my mind at ease, I relaxed into my pillow and sighed as the gentle current thrummed between us, safe and reassuring and as warm as the sun.

It wasn’t long before the remnants of my horrid day disappeared into the abyss of my mind, leaving only a clean canvas for the moment I was in. The movie I was watching. The boy I was watching it with. And for the first time in a very long time, I felt content. At peace. And also, a little afraid. Mostly because of the movie and its cheesy jump scares, but also because of how easy it was to fall back into this place with him. How easy it was toletmyself love him and forget everything that had come before. All the pain. The fighting. The bloodshed. The darkness. The death.

It was so easy to forget all of that. Loving Trace had always been as easy and natural as breathing. It was easy then and it was still easy now. It was the losing him part that nearly broke me in two. The figuring out a way to live without him. I already knew I wouldn’t be able to survive that again…

And that was the part that scared me most.

22. NIGHT CRAWLING

The sound of the curtains flapping against the window roused me from my sleep. The credits were rolling on the television screen and Trace was sleeping quietly beside me. Apparently, we’d both been too tired to make it through to the end of the movie, but unfortunately for me, I hadn’t been enough to keep me asleep.

Carefully climbing out of bed, I walked to the window and peered outside. The street was empty and dark, save for the few streetlights chasing the shadows away. I half expected Dominic to be leaning up against one, watching the house from afar, waiting for the perfect moment to strike out at me.

My skin prickled at the thought.

Shutting the window, I made my way out of the bedroom and then headed downstairs for a drink of water. The oven range light was still on, offering just enough light for me to get around the kitchen without bumping into anything. I searched a few cabinets until I found the one with the glasses and then poured myself a glass of water.

Drinking it down, I turned and rested my back against the counter, momentarily lost in thought. I found my mind going to Gabriel and the exceptional price he’d paid to help me earlier that day. I would need to pay him a visit tomorrow, to thank him properly, and to make sure that he was holding up alright. The last thing I needed was another Huntington brother running amok.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

I jumped at the sound of Trace’s unexpected voice, accidently dropping my glass of water in the process. The glass shattered at my feet as remnants of its wreckage scattered all over the kitchen floor.

“Shit, I’m so sorry,” I cried as I tried to rush across the room to fetch something to clean it up with.

“Don’t move,” said Trace and then his arm was around my waist, plucking me off the ground as though I weighed nothing more than a small paperweight and setting me down on the other side of the calamity. “There’s broken glass everywhere,” he said, eyeing me as though I were an idiot for trying to run over it.

Which, I supposed, I sort of was.

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