Page 5 of Dark Knight

“My stepmother wants my father to institutionalize me. Send me to a home for the mentally disabled.” Saying it out loud hurts more than when I overhear them talking about it.

“Jesus,” Nolan growls.

“She’s tired of taking care of me,” I explain. I don’t blame her, either. I just wish I wasn’t such a burden.

“She’s your fucking family.” The conviction in his tone warms me.

“Do you have a big family?” His eyes narrow at my subject change, but I need to move on. Being with him and Sawyer has been an oasis for me, and I know it’ll come to an abrupt halt sooner or later.

His jaw ticks before he answers. “Yes. I have a younger brother and sister. Damien is out in L.A. with our cousin Santo, and Lake still lives at home.” I can see something about that troubles him but don’t push for more. “I have a dozen or so cousins, too. We’re all close. They aren’t technically my cousins, we aren’t related by blood, but our parents are close, and we all grew up together. We’re family.”

“That must be nice.” I don’t believe I have any other family.

“Sure. When they aren’t sticking their noses in my business. But I can’t complain because I’ve got Sawyer to hang with now. And he’s infinitely more fun to chill with than my day job.”

Nolan has a way of lightening a situation, and I appreciate that about him, but I see past his cavalier attitude to the pain lurking under the surface. He has secrets he’s hiding from the world, also.

“What about you? Any other family you actually like?” I give a quick shake of my head. “Friends?”

When I scoff, he frowns, and his lips thin. “As if someone wants to befriend a freak like me.”

“Don’t do that.” He seems bothered by the truth.

“What? Say it like it is? What’s the point in hiding my reality? I haven’t had a friend since kindergarten, and even that didn’t last long.” It hurts to admit that out loud. “Nobody wants to be around a girl who loses her memory at the drop of a hat.”

“I do.” His words stun me into silence. Biting my lip, I don’t know what to say, so I remain silent. He doesn’t mean that. He can’t. He won’t after he witnesses it happen a few times. It gets old pretty fast, and he’ll be no different than anyone else in my life.

Leave as soon as it works in his favor.

* * *

Nolan

She doesn’t see it, the way her emotions play across her face. She can’t hide anything she’s thinking from me. Bea is an anomaly, and I’m going to have a fucking blast figuring her out. The only problem standing in the way is her. Because she doesn’t think she’s good enough, and that’s a fucking lie.

Cupping her cheek, I turn her face so she’s forced to look at me. “Don’t discount what I say on the presumption that I’m like everyone else. I don’t follow the pack, I fucking lead it.”

Her striking honey eyes stare up at me in wonder and amazement, and I can’t fucking help it. I lean down to kiss her, and suddenly, I’m lost. Everything around us melts away, and all I want to do is climb between her legs and settle myself there for days, months, years to come.

I never fucking believed Holden when he said he instinctively knew Noelle was his. I thought it was bullshit. But her taste, her sweet little puffs of breath, the way her body quakes as I lean over her, it’s addicting. I want more.

I want to overwhelm her until she forgets her past.

All the hardship. The agony. The terror she must feel when she looks up with no memory. I want to vanquish it all so all she knows is me.

And I’m going to.

Bea doesn’t realize it yet, but the way her fingers run through my hair, playing with the ends as her eyes close and she accepts my tongue into her mouth, is the beginning of the end. This girlwillbelong to me. And there isn’t a single person in the world who will stop me. So help me god, if they try to, I’ll end them as swiftly as I did the Russians in Maryland.

“Wow,” she murmurs as I draw back from her lips, licking across the delicate flesh as we part. “I’ve never been kissed before.” I don’t think she meant to verbalize that from the widening of her eyes and the red-hued tint to her cheeks.

“Get used to it,” I tell her, trying to tamp down my raging dick as she stares at me all innocently. I want to fuck her. Right here, right now. I want to pop that fucking cherry and lay my claim on her, but I can’t. Not yet. And not because Sawyer is one layer of fabric away, either.

I need her to want to be with me. I need her squirming and begging me to take her last shred of virtue before I can tear my way through it. The very last thing I want to do is treat her the way her family does, by taking her choices away. I just need to figure out how to get her to make the choices I want for her.

Reaching over, I grab for her book when my eye catches that tattoo again. Gripping her wrist in one hand, I glance at her. "Why did you get this?" I have a feeling I already know, but I need her to confirm it for me.

She lifts her shoulder in indifference.

---