Page 82 of True Sight
He shakes his head at me and suppresses a smile. Unable to resist him, I samba my way over to him and dance right up against him. My body bumps into his every few beats.
“You’re going to get soap and water everywhere if you’re not careful,” he threatens but there’s a hint of humor in his voice that tells me he’s enjoying this. The song turns over and hip-hop is now playing throughout the apartment.
“Oh, this is my song,” I cry out and start to clap my hands. This song is a staple in my workout classes and involves a lot of booty shaking which I employ immediately. Turning around, I start to booty-bump Conrad until my ass is pressing into his waist. He starts to laugh hysterically,something I’ve never heard him do, and the sound of it is better than any song I’ve ever heard.
“Stop, stop. At least let me take the gloves off first,” he begs as I push him away from the sink with my butt. He manages to wiggle the gloves off his hands and tosses them onto the counter before bringing his hands to my hips to hold me in place, still laughing.
“You are insane, you know that?” He throws his head back and laughs some more. I bring my hands to the floor in front of me and start to grind on him.
“Isn’t that part of my charm?” I ask over my shoulder with a wicked smirk. When I press my ass into him deeper, I feel how hard he is. One of his hands finds my lower back and holds me down, keeping me in place. My hips continue to move back and forth, gyrating against his growing length. When a moan escapes his lips, I look behind me again to notice his eyes are closed, allowing him to be fully in this moment.
“You have plenty of charm, sweets, that’s for sure,” he manages to get out.
“Trust me, love,” I say slowly, matching the movement of my hips to the slow and low beat of the music. “You don’t know the half of it.”
Suddenly, his hands wrap around my chest and he pulls me up so my back is flush with his chest. His cock presses into my ass as my own tents the shorts I’m wearing. We start to sway back and forth together when the song flips to a slow one. He has a hand on my waist and the other intertwined with my own. My free hand reaches behind me and holds onto his neck as he tucks his chin into the space where my neck meets my shoulder.
“I intend to find out everything there is to know about you, sweets, even the stuff you hide from others. You’vetaken over my thoughts but I want you to consume them. I want you to be the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thought I have before I fall asleep. So trust me when I say, I plan to learn everything there is to learn about Henry Baker. And as you know, when I have a plan, I stick to it. I hope you don’t mind.”
His words came out almost like a threat but I know what they really are.
A promise.
A promise to get to know me, all of me, and to stick around long enough to learn everything there is to learn. And just like always, my heart starts to run away with my emotions. I lean into him as he holds me, enjoying this moment, just the two of us. When he tucks his head into the crook of my neck and kisses me softly, I know I’m done for.
“I don’t mind one bit,” I hum back and happily let him hold me as we slow dance together in my kitchen for several more songs. Even during the ones that aren’t slow at all.
The soundof his labored breathing startles me awake. Blinking my eyes open, I glance at the clock on the wall and see that it’s a little after two in the morning. We crawled into bed together a little after eleven, both stripped down to our underwear, and participated in a long bout of making out and needy touching before falling asleep. I almost offered something more but could tell that there was something circling around behind his eyes that was bothering him. Assuming it had something to do with his session with Hanna, I didn’t push it no matter how much I wanted to. Just like he wants to know everything about me, I want to know everything about him. But I know how his heart works andknow that if I push him, it’ll only push him farther away. I want him to see and know that he can come to me with things in his own time and that, when he does, I’ll be there for him. I’d told him I wasn’t going anywhere and I’ll do anything to live up to that promise.
His head thrashes side to side as he lays next to me in bed. In the shadows of the dark, I can make out the pained expression on his face. Whimpers escape from his lips that resemble cries and it doesn’t take me long to realize he’s having another nightmare. I flick on the light that’s next to my side of the bed and roll back over to look at him. In the warm haze of the lamp, I can see beads of sweat starting to form across his forehead.
“Watch, watch out,”he cries in his sleep, his voice pleading to someone his mind has conjured up.
“Conrad,” I whisper into his ear as gently as I can, trying to fill his mind with a voice he recognizes. I’ve done some research on nightmares and night terrors after he told me he experienced them and learned that you shouldn’t try to wake a person up while they’re having one. Instead, you should talk to them in a calm, soothing voice, and try to keep them safe until it passes.
“Mom, no, please,”he murmurs again and shakes his head. His eyes are crushed together and I want nothing more than to pull him into my chest and protect him from the images behind his eyes. I take his hand into mine when I notice it’s clenching the duvet in fear.
“Conrad, love, you’re okay. You’re with me, it’s Henry. You’re safe, I promise.” I rub his arm with my hand and press a kiss into his shoulder. “Come back to me, love. You’re just having a bad dream, you’re safe.” I kiss his shoulder again and brush my fingertips across his brow, wiping away some of the sweat that has accumulated.
As if my touch were a bolt of lightning, he gasps suddenly and sits straight up in bed, feverishly trying to catch his breath. I hold his hand and sit up with him, shushing him as he looks around the room in panic.
“Shh, you’re okay, you’re safe. It was just a dream.” His eyes find me and the worry in his eyes grows.
“Henry?” he asks, like he doesn’t believe it. His chest is rising and falling in rapid succession. He blinks a few times, letting the light of the lamp wake him up and regain full consciousness.
“Yeah, it’s me. I’m right here.” My free hand reaches to frame his face, my thumb rubbing the space under his right eye. He leans into my touch and closes his eyes, still trying to catch his breath.
“It was just a dream,” he pants.
“A nightmare,” I correct and he blinks his eyes open again. He drops his head and presses his forehead to mine, almost like he’s anchoring himself to me. His hand grabs my thigh under the blanket as if he’s reaching for a life preserver.
“You’re safe, love. I promise, it was just a nightmare. I’m here, I’ve got you,” I promise. He nods against my forehead as his breath steadily slows down.
He pulls himself closer to me and loops his arm around my neck, wrapping me up in a desperate embrace. “I don’t want to lose you like I lost them. I can’t. I wouldn’t survive it.”
My eyes suddenly prick with tears at the mention of his parents. I force my eyes to the ceiling to push them back down. With an arm around his back, I tug him even tighter against me.
“I’m not going anywhere. I promise, you’re never going to lose me,” I whisper into his ear.
