“Yeah, it was… intense,” I profess, trailing my fingers up and down her back. “When did it happen, and who was that asshole?”
“Which time?” she sneers with disgust. “And the bastard in question is my father.”
“Fuck!” I shout into the wind.
The gentle breeze pulls and dances with tendrils of her wavy blonde hair.
She chuckles. “Yeah, that about sums it up.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck! I’m… fuck. Sorry isn’t enough,” I grunt. “He did… that… multiple times?”
She nods again and clears her throat. Hot tears drip from her eyes and down my chest. “It was his go to for a while when he noticed my healing accelerated each time he did it. Then he moved on to other things when it looked like I plateaued.”
“Damn, you really are like a superhero. Have Wolverine’s powers and everything,” I joke, because I don’t know if I can take more crying.
She laughs, her hot breath sending tingling chills down my spine. “Excuse you. I’m a girl, so I have X-23’s abilities. She’s a total badass.”
“Hell yeah, she is.” I rock her gently side to side. “All we need to do is get you fitted with your own set of adamantium claws, and you’ll be unstoppable.”
“Don’t forget the spikes in her feet,” she chides. “Those kicks are brutal. I’d also have to learn some type of martial art.”
“I don’t know. Flailing about with claws and spikes that can cut through anything seems like it’d still be pretty effective,” I tease.
She laughs again and wipes at her face.
I don’t want to ask, but I feel like I have to. “Do these flashbacks happen to you often?”
Callie turns her head so she’s resting more comfortably against my shoulder and has one hand pressed against my chest. “Not that often and nothing like this. I’m presuming it’s bad if you had to come rescue me.”
I nod, and a new wave of guilt washes over me. I know the guys must be losing their minds out in the real world, and I should be trying to get us back as soon as possible, but I know once we’re back, I’m a ghost again. Shit, Kaleb’s right. If I didn’t know how much it would hurt Callie, I’d definitely be okay with staying here with her like this forever.
“I get nightmares a lot though,” she confesses, jarring me from my thoughts.
A twisted hope snakes through my blood, and I stutter, “I could come back if you wanted. We could see what else we can do here. Travel the world in your mind.”
She sniffs. “I would like that.”
A warm joy spreads through my chest, but thinking of how seductive it already feels to get lost with Callie in her mind, I put in restrictions for myself. “I probably can’t come every night, but at least a few times a week.”
“A few nights of undisturbed sleep sounds pretty good to me,” she chuckles.
“You got it.” I swallow heavily and do the right thing. “We should get back. Your aunt and the guys are all outside waiting for you to wake up.”
“Oh hell,” she groans, once again burying her face in my neck.
I close my eyes and swallow my own groan. It feels too good.Yeah, we have to go soon, or I’m really going to forget why we have to leave.“Time to go.”
“Casper?” she murmurs, barely audible over the light breeze. “Could you keep what you saw to yourself? I don’t want them to know what it was really like. Not yet.”
Keeping this from the guys feels wrong-- or feels like it should be wrong, but selfishly, I like the idea of something only I know about her. Only something I can help her with. The guys get to touch or hold her anytime they want, so to have this one thing with her-- it makes what we have feel special. It makes me feel special.
It’s not my story to tell,I reason, but it feels hollow since I know it isn’t the real reason I’ll keep her secrets.
“I promise to keep it to myself,” I tell her, breathing her in before we go. “You can tell me or show me anything, and I promise that it’ll stay between us.”
“Thank you.”
She looks up at me with a watery smile, and I can’t help but place a light kiss on her forehead.
