Page 98 of Bound By Fate
“You’re okay, Wild Kat.”
The dream still must’ve had its talons in me because I scooted away from the man who laid beside me.
The disappointment on his face struck me. This wasn’t that twin guy. This was Dryerson. My man. They might have had the same face, but they were not similar by any means.
I fell into his arms, and he held me tightly.
“I’m so sorry.” My body began to tremble in his warm embrace. “It was a dream, and I…”
“Shh… Wild Kat.” His hand filtered through my hair then went to that special spot on my neck he loved to touch.
The calm wasn’t instant, but it did come only moments later. He was my calm. He was my strength.
I sucked in a very deep breath and then pushed it out loudly.
“This isn’t gonna happen every night like before? Is it?” As much as I didn’t like talking about the time in the crematory, the dreams after that nightmare were worse than hell. They had lasted months. I didn’t want to go through that again. Not having a good night’s sleep for months and working as hard as I do didn’t go hand-in-hand.
“Don’t know. But I’ll be by you every step of the way.”
God couldn’t have granted me a better man. Love felt like a small word as to how I felt about this man. It was like he was my oxygen, and I needed him to breathe.
Through everything, he had been right by my side, even when I tried pushing him away. He never gave up.
There was a knock on door to the adjoining room.
“My sister,” I whispered.
“Let her in. She’s worried about ya.” He kissed me on the top of my head and rolled out of bed, making his way into the bathroom. I still had my clothes on from after my shower. I didn’t even want to think about how my hair looked. Going to bed with it wet was never a good thing.
Getting up from the bed, I went to the door, unlocked it, and opened it. My sister fell into my arms, and I wrapped mine around her. We said nothing. Just stood there and held each other. Sometimes the best moments in life were when no one spoke a word, but you knew everything they wanted to say. This was one of those times.
When Ensley pulled away, tears welled in her eyes. Taking my thumbs, I swiped the top of her cheeks wiping away the water.
“Shh … don’t cry,” I told her. “I’m okay. Or I will be okay.”
She blew out a deep breath, still clutching onto me and holding me close. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think this could happen, Katie. I’m so damn sorry.”
Leaning in, I kissed her cheek and pulled away, grabbing her hands in front of us.
“No one knew. Right?”
Ensley nodded.
“Right. This isn’t anyone’s fault, Ensley. You don’t get to lay that guilt on your shoulders.”
Ensley’s lip tipped. “I swear I told you the same thing.”
My head shook. “That was totally different, but I’m working through that. I just have a little bump in the road that I need to overcome.”
Ensley pulled away then pulled the long sleeves of my shirt up, seeing all the bruises. Then moving on to the other.
“I’m fine.”
“You have bruises.”
She wasn’t wrong because I could honestly feel my flesh on fire from where he grabbed me, and my face was on fire from when he slapped me.
“They’ll heal.”
