Page 75 of Secrets That Bind Us
I squeal inwardly, wanting to kick my feet like a schoolgirl that just got her first kiss.
Dean Carson… is in my bed.
And he looks and fucks like a god.
I can’t take my eyes off of him.
I feel like I'm looking at a mirage. How many times while I was pregnant with Savannah did I pretend he had been in bed with us just like this, with his hand laying on my stomach protectively? How many times did I wish I could come back to Adelaide just to be beside him once more?
It doesn’t matter anymore.
After one last look at him, my eyes droop once more… and I accidentally fall asleep on my back.
It smells like smoke.
That’s the first thing I think of when my eyelids flutter open. My room is blurry, trapped in shadows save for a soft, dim glow of the small night light in the hallway. There’s a weight on my stomach, heavy and firm. My brows furrow together, and I blink a few more times, the small panic fading when I remember I’m next to Dean.
My Dean.
I turn my head to face him, to look at the love of my life, my soulmate, the man God seemed to have made just for me - the one I’m addicted to loving, the man I am meant to fall for over and over and over again.
But when I turn my head, the scent gets potent, permeating in my nostrils, and I realize what I'm smelling isn’t smoke.
It’s burnt flesh.
“Hey…baby.” Micah taunts, the bile makes its way up my throat, and I hold back a gag. His face is an amalgamation of glowing embers and his charred flesh, a thing of nightmares. Half his face is gone, melted, like a wax figurine, onto his bones and I whimper. “Shhh shhh shhh…” he quiets me down.
But then a noise upstairs captures my attention.
A jingle of a belt buckle, and thenthud, thud, thud.
Daddy.
I blink, the weight on my stomach growing hot. I whimper again, trying to get my mouth to work, to scream for help. For Dean.
I look at the version of Micah my mind has conjured again, and he leans in closer, the hold he has on my stomach burns. It burns so fucking bad, like claws penetrating the wall of my stomach, reaching deeper to get to my womb. “Please,” I moan, but I don’t think it comes out right. My mouth can’tmove even though my chin trembles, drool slipping from the side, and a tear leaks free.
“It ain’t so bad, Ver,”Micah looms closer, his lips so close to me, I can smell his rancid breath.
Rot.
Decay.
Thud, thud, thud.
I shiver and close my eyes. Daddy’s coming down the stairs.
This is a dream. It’s just a dream.
“Want to know a secret?”
I whimper, unwilling to open my eyes.
“I told your daddy about what you did in the loft…”
My eyes snap open to look at the monster beside me. I don’t… I don’t know what he means by that. But it doesn’t matter. The light in the hallway is snuffed out by the large, dark form in the doorway, elongated limbs with claws for fingers.
“Verity... Verity... Verity… you were a bad, bad girl…”Micah’s chuckling rasp sends chills all over my body..
