Page 130 of Show Me How
I take the stairs two at a time, shouting when I get halfway up. “Millie, it’s me!”
There’s a loud clang from behind me as I pick up my pace and tear down the hall. Passing door after door, I move quickly, knowing it’s only a matter of time before her father pops out like a fucking ghoul and tries to push me back down the stairs.
We’ve been apart for two goddamn days, and if I don’t get to her soon, I’m going to?—
It’s got to be a joke from the universe when the fucker she was supposed to marry butts into me instead of her. The sight of him in her house is bad enough, but throw in the curl of his lip when he notices who it is he just ran into and I’m on a hair trigger.
“Get out of my way,” I grit out.
Chadwick pushes his gelled hair back and tries to stand off against me. “You’re not welcome in the Harringtons’ home.”
“Are you a long-lost brother or something? Why the fuck are you speaking on their behalf?”
“You’re the reason she’s not the same,” he spits, smashing a hand to my chest. “You changed her, and now everything has gone to shit.”
Alarm blasts through me. “What do you mean?”
“You and those drawings all over your skin! She was perfect. A sweet, quiet girl meant to be my wife. Now, she won’t keep her mouth shut and let things be the way they were supposed to!”
“You need to shut yours before you say anything worse than what you already have,” I warn softly, meeting his glare with one far worse.
Chadwick doesn’t stop while he’s even marginally ahead. He pushes me harder, further, until I’m positive I’m going to smash his face into a thousand unsalvageable pieces.
“She’s worthless to this family now that you’ve soiled her. If she chooses you again, she’ll be nothing worse than a degenerate like you.”
I don’t think. In a blink, I have my arm pulled back and fist raised. It’s not me who punches him, though.
I’m shoved to the side a mere second before a much smaller fist is flying through the air and smashing into his nose. He goes stumbling backward, shock and pain registering in his eyes before he falls onto his ass.
“Shit!”
A familiar curse snaps me into action. Whipping my head to the side, I find Millie clutching her hand, bent over at the waist. My body focuses on her as I turn away from the whimpering, bleeding idiot on the floor and scoop her into my arms.
My chest loosens while my heart ramps up, filling my ears with a quickthump, thump, thump. Millie’s blue eyes are wide when they meet mine. I laugh without meaning to, letting it fill the gap between us before I’m pressing her to the wall, filling my hands with her thighs.
“Is it broken?” she asks, reminding me of her knuckles.
While a little red, they’re fine. “No, princess. His nose must have been made of rubber.”
Her smile is bright, so pure it makes my knees shake. I use my body to pin her to the wall and bring a hand up to cup her cheek, stroking the soft, warm skin.
“Two days have never felt so long to me, Millie. Not once in my entire fucking life have I missed anyone the way I missed you.”
“What took so long?”
I quirk a brow. “What?”
“I’ve been ready to go back since the moment I got here. Before that, even. I should have never gotten in that car,” she declares, bringing both her hands to rest on my shoulders. “I waswaiting for you to tell me to stay so I didn’t have to make the decision on my own, when that’s what I’ve always needed to do.”
“I should have told you I love you weeks ago when I started realizing I couldn’t shake you. The moment you started infiltrating my thoughts at all hours of the day, I should have known something was going on. When I couldn’t help but ask you to live with me—to share my place and rearrange my things without giving a shit what you replaced them with. That’s never been me, Millie. But then I woke up one day, and suddenly, it was.
“I don’t know how you did it so effortlessly, but you’ve become so engrained in my life that I don’t want to spend another day, let alone two, without you beside me again. It doesn’t matter if I’m sitting in another one of your book clubs or watching you across the studio as you sketch away at your desk. The only thing I want is to be close to you. All I need you to do is decide that you want that too.”
Her eyes shine as she exhales a near-silent breath and nods, her thighs tightening around my waist. “I love you, Shade. Every coloured, cocky, yet patient and talented inch of you. You helped me find who I am, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank you enough for that. But you also encouraged me to take that person and grow into a version of myself that I didn’t think even existed. I’ve never been as happy as I was with you in Oak Point. Not once, and I know I won’t be until I’m back. So, all I need is for you to take us home now.”
I drop my chin and claim her lips, kissing her the way I wish I had two days ago. She meets me with equal strength and loops an arm around my nape, pulling me closer. I squeeze her thighs, reacquainting my palms with the lack of tights on her bare legs. My smirk forces our lips apart when I run my hands higher beneath her short skirt, opening my eyes to see her trying not to laugh.
“Jesus,” Chadwick grunts.
