Page 102 of Touch Me Not: Anniversary Edition

Janet sighed and pulled open her bag. It was a huge bag. More of a beach bag than a purse, but Nikoli refrained from saying so. Women were weird when it came to their purses. They could get downright hostile.

“You should read this, then. Maybe you’ll understand what you did to her and never do it again. Because if you do, I don’t care what I have to do. I’ll find a way to make you pay for it.”

The fierceness on Janet’s face was intense, and Nikoli drew back. He’d just been thinking of hostile women, and here sat one ready to maim him any way she could.

He took the tablet she held out to him and looked down. A document was pulled up, and he frowned.

Touch Me Notby L. Holmes.

“This is her book?”

“Yes. She took the story of the two of you and put it into words. She changed the names, but you’ll understand everything when you read it.”

Nik’s hand shook as he held the tablet. He didn’t know if he wanted to read it. He’d seen her pain firsthand. To read it in her own words…he wasn’t sure if he could handle that.

“You damn well better read it. You caused that hurt, so you should know the mess you left her in.”

He sat up and got his shit under control. He forced his expression into a bland one. “I’m not going to hurt her, Janet. She means everything to me, and I’ll spend every day for the rest of our lives showing her that.”

“Then why the fuck did you break up with her?”

“Because I was scared. And a fool.”

“You an asshole.”

“That too.”

“I have to go meet Mike for lunch. He’s bringing my homework to me. I’m not leaving the hospital tonight. They’ll have to have security throw me out.”

“I’ll make sure they leave you alone.”

“And how can you do that?”

He smiled his snake charmer’s smile. “Trust me.”

Jan shook her head and stood. “You are such a manwhore.”

“A reformed manwhore.”

He didn’t hear what she said as she left, and he swiped the page and started reading. Janet was right. He deserved whatever pain this might cause him.

He just hoped his heart survived it.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Nikoli only moved once, and that was to go to the bathroom when they took Lily for another CT scan. Adam came back at one point and handed him coffee, but he wasn’t sure if he even thanked him for it.

He was absorbed in Lily’s book.

She had a way with words that made him feel every single emotion she did as she wrote it. He laughed, he got angry with her, but when it came to the tough parts, he hurt along with her as well.

And then came Race Day.

He stopped reading for a heartbeat, but he forced himself to do it. He felt that day all over again, only worse. He felt it through her words, through how she felt, and if he was able to go back in time, he’d have beat the shit out of himself. He always knew Lily felt deeply, but he’d had no idea the true depth of her soul. Until he read how she’d shattered into a thousand tiny shards and still wasn’t able to put herself back together.

Adam super-glued her together enough to function. He’d lain with her for two days on the floor and just held her. Nikoli wanted to punch him, but he was too grateful to him to be able to do it. Lily would have regressed to the person she was without Boy Wonder. Reading her words, he knew it instinctively, so he had to refrain from bruising the man.

“Here. You have to eat.” Adam dropped a Sonic bag in his lap and set a large drink on the table beside Lily’s bed. “She still in CT?”

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