Page 43 of Unmask
His gaze swept over me with deliberate slowness, and those silver eyes missed nothing, not the way my chest rose and fell too quickly, not the slight tremor in my hands, not the flush creeping up my neck despite my best efforts to remain unaffected. He looked completely unbothered by my declaration, as if he couldsee straight through every desperate defense I tried to erect between us. “I’ve never been comfortable a day in my life, little raven. Except for the nights you were in my bed.”
The nickname stole the air from my lungs, making my knees go weak. My hand flew to my chest instinctively, fingers pressing against my sternum as if I could somehow hold my heart together through sheer force of will. I hated that he remembered those stolen moments. Hated even more that I did too, that my treacherous memory could conjure the exact cadence of his voice when he used to say it like a prayer. “And that kiss on the couch can’t happen again.” My tongue darted out to wet my lips, a nervous habit I couldn’t suppress, and I caught the way his eyes tracked the movement with laser focus. “You keep your lips, your hands, and your dick to yourself.”
A slow smile spread across his face, making my stomach flip with unwanted heat. “I love it when you get bossy.”
“Stop it.” The command cracked, but even I heard the tremor underneath it. My body was already turning toward the hallway, muscles coiling with the desperate need to run before I did something irreversibly stupid. “I’m sleeping in my room.”
“I’d hope so.” His voice followed me, warm with amusement that made my skin prickle with awareness. “Unless you wanna share the couch.”
My spine went rigid at the suggestion, every nerve ending sparking to life despite my brain’s frantic protests. I didn’t look back, couldn’t risk it, couldn’t trust myself to see whatever expression was painted across his face, because if I turned around, if I caught even a glimpse of that look he used to give me, the one that made me feel like the only person in his universe, I’d crumble.
My feet carried me down the hallway on autopilot, the walls seemed to close in around me, familiar family photos blurringtogether as I forced myself to keep moving forward instead of running back to where he waited.
And that was the problem, wasn’t it? The ugly truth I couldn’t admit out loud, couldn’t even fully acknowledge in the privacy of my own mind.
Despite everything, despite the lies and the betrayal, despite the way he’d shattered my trust so completely, some traitorous part of me still wanted him.
My bedroom door loomed ahead like salvation, but even as my hand closed around the cool metal of the doorknob, the feel of his presence burned at my back. I could imagine him sprawled across the couch, waiting for me with such arrogant cockiness.
I twisted the handle and stepped inside, closing the door behind me with a soft click.
How the hellwas I supposed to get any sleep with Kreed downstairs? Somehow, not having eyes on him was worse. I had so much homework to catch up on, but studying or working on a paper was the last thing I wanted to do. I had zero concentration unless it was on the asshole sleeping on the couch.
Still, I flopped onto the bed, grabbed the borrowed laptop from Brock, and attempted to get shit done. I must have fallen asleep, exhaustion finally claiming me. My nights for weeks had been restless and long, anything but peaceful, except for the nights I’d been with Kreed.
I didn’t know what time it was when the nightmare started, only that I was drowning in it. Screams. Blood. My mother’s voice cut off too fast. My father’s hand, reaching, covered in crimson. The stench of smoke. A creaking floorboard, too close. And me, too late.
I gasped awake, my throat raw from crying, chest heaving like I’d run miles. My sheets were tangled around my legs, drenched in sweat, and the laptop had slid off my lap, the screen blank. The darkness of the room was familiar, but it didn’t feel safe. Not yet. Not with my pulse still in my ears and my hands shaking.
“Kaylor.”
Kreed.
My eyes found him sitting on the edge of my bed, half shadowed by the glow of the hallway light leaking in behind him, so close to me his warmth seeped into me. His brows were drawn together, eyes scanning my face as if he was trying to fix me with just a look. His fingers were tangled in the side of my hair, his palm cupping my cheek. “You were crying,” he said softly. “The nightmares still keeping you up, little raven?”
I swallowed hard, shame and pain catching in my throat. Papers were scattered on top of the bed, alongside the open laptop. “I—I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You didn’t.” He untangled his fingers as the pad of his thumb brushed along the outline of my jaw. “I couldn’t sleep. You’re not the only one haunted by things they would love to forget.”
You, of all people, can understand his pain.Raine’s voice popped into my head.
Had he been referring to their mother’s death? Was that the pain Kreed and I shared? If that were true, wouldn’t it have been trauma we all shared? Raine, Mason, Maddox, and Kreed? The loss of a parent?
I should tell him I was fine, to stop touching me, and demand he leave. Having Kreed in my room late at night was never a good idea, but I didn’t want him to go.AndI definitely didn’t want him to stop touching me, not when every cell in my body came alive, despite that voice of reason inside me screamingbadidea, but none of them were louder than the silence lingering after a nightmare. None of them drowned out the shaking in my chest or the way my skin still crawled with old ghosts as Kreed did. He banished the nightmares. Perhaps it was that his darkness overtook mine, blanketing me in his chaos, fierce, consuming, and strangely safe.
He sat on the bed, barefoot, hoodie rumpled, hair a wild mess as if he’d run his hands through it a hundred times tonight. He looked at me, waiting to see if I would tell him to get out, but it took one glance into his silver eyes to know I wouldn’t.
I didn’t want to be alone even if it meant having the company of the enemy. “What’s keeping you up at night?” I asked, breaking the silence before it could swallow us whole.
His shoulders lifted in a faint shrug, but his gaze stayed locked on mine as his hand fell from my face. “You. My mom. My dad. Crew shit.”
I sat up slowly, pulling my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around them, refusing to admit how much I missed his touch. “Tell me about her.” Talking was far safer than silence. I didn’t know much about the woman who gave birth to Donovan’s children, and I wanted to know more about his mom and why they rarely spoke of her.
He hesitated, and for a moment I thought he’d shut down like he always did when things got too real, but his voice broke through the quiet. “What do you want to know?”
“Whatever you’re comfortable sharing.” I couldn’t help but be curious about her. I hadn’t noticed a single photo of her in the house, only what I’d seen online. She’d been beautiful, passing most of her stunning looks to Kreed, the eyes, the onyx hair, and the strong chin.
“She was everything. Light, warmth…soft in all the places this world is hard. She loved music, used to sing around the house when she thought no one was listening. And she had thislaugh. God, you would’ve liked her laugh. It filled up a room. She would have adored you.”
