Page 77 of Casita Casanova
I’m so fucked. I’ve known her for four days and I’m running a bath for her.
“Thank you,” she whispers, stepping out of my arms.
I search her gaze, but I can’t tell what she wants me to do. I run my thumbs over her cheeks. “Should I go?”
She nods. “I just need some time.”
Fuck. “Okay. I’ll lock the door on my way out.” I lean down and kiss her forehead, then leave her alone.
Did I just kiss her fucking forehead?
I need to get back to New York.
This won’t do.
But even just the thought of going back to New York and leaving Maryn behind makes my stomach twist into knots.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Maryn
I’ve sat in the same position, with my knees pulled up to my chest and my arms wrapped around them, for so long that the bathwater has turned tepid and I’ve started to shiver. The tears long ago dried up. The ache in my chest eased to a tolerable level.
And I’ve had time tothink.
I pull the drain for the tub, and as I rise to my feet to turn on the shower, I straighten my spine and pull my shoulders back.
Eddie’s words nearly cost him a broken jaw—or worse—and he deserved whatever Cas would have given him.
But his words don’t get to seep into my soul and take up residence. I can’t let them.
I won’t.
I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life. I haven’t been the perfect mother or wife. I have faults and idiosyncrasies, trauma and scars like anyone else.
But the only person who’s ever made me feel liketrashis Eddie.
And if that means that someday I’ll be someone else’s treasure, so be it.
It hurts, I won’t pretend that it doesn’t, but twenty years with that man taught me a lot of things. He’s a spiteful asshole. He’ll say whatever he can to win an argument. He fights dirty.
Eddie is the type of man that keeps an arsenal of my mistakes just so that he can throw them in my face when the mood suits him—or when doing so can give him the upper hand.
As I wash my hair and soap my body, my mind turns to Cas.
In just four short days, he’s given me what Eddie never did.
And I’m not talking about mind-blowing orgasms, though he did give me one of those and was well onto the next before my ex showed up.
I’m talking about something else entirely. Something better.
Cas has given me a feeling I can’t quite put into words. Something I’m not yet sure of.
It feels like breathing again.
Like I can fill my lungs with air for the first time in I don’t know how long.
That thought brings a sob from my lips and tears rush to my eyes.
