Page 113 of Hiding Secrets

“Oh.”

“Marcus–” I take a deep breath and sit up straighter, needing to brace myself for the way I'm about to be completely honest with him. “I care for you more than I thought, even after all the bullshit remarks and the way you hated me. I couldn’t help but be drawn to you, to care for you.” He stares at me more intensely but doesn't say anything and I’m glad for it because there’s more I want to say, “I don’t know how you feel…but from what we’ve been doing, how we’ve been talking to each other, it feels different. Like you might just care for me a little bit now. And fuck me if that doesn’t make my heart skip a beat. I know this is hard for you, opening up, and I would never want to push you or rush you into any decision. I am happy to take whatever you’ll give me. I just–”

“A little bit?” He interjects before I can continue my next thought.

“Yeah. I don’t know wh–”

“Elliott, You have to know I care for you more thana little bit.”

“No, I don’t really.” My chest pings with more frustration than I should feel right now, “I can assume all day long and makeshit up in my head by the way you act towards me now, but..” My shoulders sag, “I don’treallyknow how you feel, what you want from me other than what we have been lately. You’ve never told me in words whatthisis. I know what I am with Kameron and Hunter. Withus…” I gesture between us, trying to find the right words, but I can’t, “Ahem, I will take whatever you will give me because I–”

His eyes soften in a way I’ve never seen before and the dark umber hues seem brighter. His gaze flickers between my eyes and my mouth, his lips part as if he wants to say something. “Elliott?”

“Yes?”

“I want to give you all the right words but I don’t know how. I’m not someone who does this often, Hunter and Kameron are family. It came so organically to be together, years of falling in love with each other. But with you it's been a whirlwind of emotions, so rapid I feel like my head is spinning.”

“Close your eyes.”

He pulls back a little, “What?” His brows knit as if I asked him to do something completely absurd.

“Marcus, just close your eyes.” He squints his eyes at me but does what I asked of him, “Now try to find the words.”

“I–” His hands reach for me, so I scoot closer. His hands land on my thighs letting them glide up to my hips, “You have made me feel things I didn’t know I could feel anymore, and that…” he grips my hips, his fingers deliciously digging into the fabric of myjeans. He lifts me so that I’m on his lap straddling him. I yelp in surprise at the change of direction this is taking.

“Keep going.” I encourage him.

One of his hands blindly reaches up to cup the side of my neck and he pulls me forward so that my forehead is leaning on his, “It scares the living shit out of me.”

“I know.” I breathe out the words as I look at him, his eyes still closed. His emotions raw on his face and the way his eyes scrunch up in the corners and the wobble in his bottom lip. “I’m scared too, you know.”

His eyes pop open at my words, “You’re scared?”

“I’m terrified.”

“Why areyouscared?”

“I don’t want to lose any of you. I don’t want any of you to hurt because ofme. I care about you guys. I can’t imagine a world where I didn't have you all in my life.”

“El, are you catching feelings for the three assholes that forced themselves into your life?”

“I’m falling for the only three men that have ever given a damn about me fully.”

“Oh princess, we’re falling for you just as much as you are falling for us…maybe even more.”

“Is that so?” I taunt him with a playful tone, but my heart aches at what he might be insinuating.

His face drops and his cups my face in his hands, “Princess, I know so.” He takes a deep breath, his eyes burning into me with seriousness. “Elliott–”

A loud bang sounds off, my ears ringing at a high pitch. Then everything seems to go extremely silent as Marcus’s body jolts into my chest.

“Marcus!” I scream at him, pushing him up so I can see his face, but his body slumps back onto the grass behind him. “Marcus!” I shake him, but I get no response. I glide my hands over his body trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, when my hands land on a wet spot on his chest. I lift my trembling hands to see bright red on my fingers.

No. No. No. What the fuck just happened?

“I didn’t mean to ruin the moment there, but I’m kind of in a hurry.”

The voice cuts through me, making my veins run cold. I lift my head to find Joshua standing there with a gun in his hands, looking annoyed. He huffs out an exasperated breath walking towards me.

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