Page 46 of Worth the Trouble

She pauses her hands on my jeans, so I know I did say it out loud. I grab her wrists and stop her, realizing even with her bouncy tits and wet tongue licking her lips, something is trying to crawl out of me and it’s not good.

She’s not right, none of this is.

She’s all velvet, and I want thorns. I want barbs. I want dark eyes that cut me until I bleed.

I want Lili.

“Rome?”

I hear my name but the blonde chick’s mouth isn’t moving. She’s half naked between my legs and I’m holding her wrists in my hands. But she’s silent, tipping her head to the side.

Rome… I hear my name replay, and I realize it wasn’t the blonde at all.

My gaze snaps to the doorway and I squint. “Lili?”

Maybe I’ve manifested her. These are some trippy drugs and I’m definitely seeing shit. But the longer I stare at her, the sharper her lines become. A shadow in the darkness with her galaxy hair and Saturn eyes swirling.

One look and she eats my entire soul in one bite.

What does it taste like?

I wonder if I ask her if she’ll tell me.

Lili’s gaze falls to the woman at my feet, and I follow.

Fuck, this looks bad. It is bad. Not sure why I care or if I should. Bad is what I do best.

“Sorry.” It’s Lili’s voice again this time, but distant.

I watch her turn to leave, and I feel her tug that cord attached to my stomach. A lifeforce she’s trying to snap, and it pulls me to her. I almost fall as I stand up and try to chase her down this rabbit hole she’s jumping down.

My brain is twisting things.

I’m thinking in cursive but at least it’s beautiful.

“Lili.” I grab her arm and somehow catch the butterfly in my hand. Surprising myself when I don’t break her wings off from the force of it. “Wait.”

She spins around and her face is all eyes, looking at me with every emotion that exists.

She came. She actually came.

Not that she looks happy about it.

“You’re here.”

“I shouldn’t be.” She tries to pull away, but I don’t let her because I caught the butterfly and that’s hard enough to do once, much less twice. “Rome, please.”

“That wasn’t…” Fuck, what wasn’t it?

It was.

Kind of.

I was stopping it.

I think?

“You don’t have to explain yourself.” She pulls away, and I feel myself falling into an endless oblivion.

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