Page 83 of Between Never and Forever
“When I hit you, Ezekiel, I don’t want the blood from your fucking mouth to get on my fiancée.” I moved slow enough. If he’d have read the room even just a little, he would have seen it coming.
My first and only punch to the right side of his jaw was measured. He tried to duck at the last millisecond, but he was much too slow. He crumpled to the floor, his face completely calm, even as blood and teeth flew from him. He looked asleep, knocked out from just the right amount of force I’d inflicted.
“Jesus, Dex,” Kee whispered while I stared down at him, not sure if I should keep hitting him. I wanted to, but it wouldn’t be a fair fight.
“How many times has he dragged his lips across your neck the way he did tonight?” I wanted the question to be pointed. I’d been watching them both, and I wasn’t just a bit unhinged. I’d gone all the way down the rabbit hole. Her eyes narrowed on me before she glanced to the corner of the room. “You won’t see the cameras, heartbreaker. Our technology is better than that. But your ring will alert me anytime you’re scared. The temperature your body gives off showcases your fear too.”
“You were watching?” she whispered out in disbelief. “Have you been watching me since I’ve been here?”
“What if I was?”
She didn’t answer at first, just chewed her lip. “Like I said before, I’d rather it be you than someone else.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, Kee. You know when you say that, I actually consider doing it?”
“I don’t care.” Her eyes blazed with defiance now. “I mean it.”
“Well, it was only tonight that I watched for your security. And even if you wanted me to, I wouldn’t apologize for it.”
She pulled the gloves she’d been wearing off one finger at a time. Underneath them was the ring that helped alert me to her distress. “I don’t expect you to. The fact that you considered it when the rest of the world doesn’t is nice of you.” She smiled as if it was okay to make a joke about this.
“Kee, people have been watching you,” I said quietly even though I wanted to shake her. “What the fuck have you been allowing to happen?”
“It’s not just black and white, Dex. Plus, it’s easier not to make a fuss and—”
“Go with the flow?” I knew this wasn’t the time to argue. She’d been practically assaulted. Yet, she was acting as if it weren’t a problem, and I knew my ass would argue that it was until my dying day.
“Just… I have to consider all angles, okay? It’s not as bad as it seems, and I’ve learned to get through it.”
Even now, her mind worked fast. I saw how she had a far-off look for a second, like she needed to contemplate her next move. She’d looked that same way on the stage at the end of the show. The crowd had leaned in, wanting more of her, and she’d suddenly closed them off to everything. Now I knew why. “Learned to get through it? That’s fucked-up and you know it. You changed the end of your concert for him, didn’t you? You didn’t sing our song.”
“I… It wasn’t the right time.”
“No. But it would have been.” And suddenly I was fucking pissed that she hadn’t sung it. “He stole that from you. Fromus.”
“You don’t care if I sing that song anyway, Dex.” She turned away from me, but I saw the hurt in her eyes. So I softly grabbed her chin and brought her gaze back to mine.
“I do care,” I ground out. “I’d rather you be up there as yourself than up there as a caricature of yourself.”
“Okay,” she scoffed. “Well, I’m working on it.”
That wasn’t good enough. “If you can’t be yourself here because you don’t feel safe, I’ve fucking failed at making this resort—”
“If you’re concerned about the resort, you can rest assured, the security here is—”
“It’s not about the fucking resort.” The words flew out before I could stop them. Jesus, it wasn’t about anything but her. I’d avoided her for days trying to figure it out and classify what I was feeling so I could handle it correctly, but there was no way to do so other than to say it was love.
I still fucking loved this girl, and I wasn’t going to let her go. I knew that now. I had to come to terms with it too because my brother would have killed me otherwise.
“What’s it about then?” she asked. It came out delicately, and I finally saw a crack in her armor as she gulped, waiting for the answer.
Kee was strong. She was strong because she had to be, and I knew that was why she didn’t want to let me in. We’d broken each other down too many times. I was the same way with her. Yet, here, I had to be honest. She deserved that.
“It’s about you showing them who you really are without holding back. You were fucking magical tonight, heartbreaker. People cried for you.”
“People cried for us, because every song is about you.”
My emotions were all mixed up, and I didn’t know which would win—the love I had for her or the heartbreak I was scared to endure from her again. “That may be—”
