Page 368 of Releasing 10
Breaking into a run, I bolted down the gravel driveway with only one destination in mind.
Freedom.
When I reached the gate, I thought I was in the clear, but nope. “Don’t do this,” Hugh growled, grabbing my shoulders before I reached the road. He spun me around to face him and said it again. “Don’tdothis, Liz.”
The rain was beating down on us, plastering his halo of dirty-blond hair to his forehead.
Raindrops trickled from his brow to his nose and then his lips, and I couldn’t take it.
Looking at him hurt so fucking much.
I wasn’t sure if I was screaming or crying, but I knew there were strange noises coming out of my throat.
“You don’t want me!” I hissed, breaking free of his hold and booking it toward the road. “He does!”
“He doesn’t deserve you,” Hugh roared, snatching me back up. “And you don’t deserve this demon fucking disease!”
“Let go of me!” I screamed, thrashing against Hugh’s impossibly strong hold as he carted me out of the road. “Now!”
“So you can go back to that prick and lay on your back for him? Or worse, go back inside and carve yourself like a fucking pumpkin?” Hugh roared, beyond livid. “Not a chance in hell.” He shook his head again and pulled me flush against his chest. “You’re coming home with me. Where I can look after you.”
“Why would you even want that?” I choked out, roughly shoving him away. “You said it yourself: being around me makes you miserable!”
“Yeah,” he snarled, closing the space between us. “Andnotbeing around you makes me feel even worse!”
His words seemed to resonate with something inside of my subconscious and I felt myself slowly calming.
“Hugh.” Shivering, I reached up and brushed his full bottom lip. “I don’t want to make you feel worse.”
His subconscious reaction was to reciprocate my affection by kissing my finger, only to groan in frustration when he realized his mistake.
Because I was a mistake.
His greatest mistake.
“Listen.” Clutching my face between his big hands, Hugh hunched down to lock eyes with me, forcing me to focus on those magical, whiskey-brown irises. “You can’t stay here on your own. Not right now, okay? So I’m going to take you home with me.”
“You are?”
“Yes.” His voice was steady and reassuring and soothed something deep inside of me. “We’re going to walk to my place, and you are going to hang there until your parents get back from wherever the fuck they went.”
“Just us?”
“Just us,” he confirmed gruffly.
“Can I hold your hand on the walk?”
“Yeah, Liz.” Pain flickered in his eyes, and he nodded slowly. “You can hold my hand on the walk.”
MAYBE WE CAN BE FRIENDS?
Hugh
DECEMBER 30, 2003
“OUT,” IWHISPER-HISSED MIDWAY THROUGH SHOWERING, WHENIPOKED MY HEADaround the shower curtain and locked eyes on the blond leaning against the bathroom door. “Now.”
I was in no form for her antics, not after the last storm I got caught in.
