I glanced down at my watch. “No, we still have time. We should finish this.”
Ella heard the double entendre in my sentence. She stiffened and turned around, giving me her back. “I’m in no mood to continue this competition, Cade. I’m depleted. Mentally and emotionally.” Bending down, she snatched the discarded baseball bat and flinched. “Ouch. Shit!”
I rushed to her. “What’s wrong?”
“I cut myself on broken glass.” Ella angled her hand towards her flashlight. A crimson slash in her palm had blood trickling over her skin.
Damn me for shattering that glass globe in anger. “Fuck, show me.”
Blood didn’t make me squeamish. But blood on Ella did.
I hissed through my teeth when she extended her hand. “You need to get that cleaned and bandaged right away. The nurse’s office is right around the corner. I’ll take you.”
It wasn’t deep enough to need stitches, but I didn’t want her driving home with a bleeding hand.
Stubborn as ever, she shook her head. “I’m fine.” Reaching into her little crossbody purse, she pulled out a few tissues and bundled them against her palm. They instantly turned scarlet. “This will do until I get home.”
No, it wouldn’t. “Ella, please. Let me take care of you.”
For a second, I thought she would oppose.
But there was no spark left in her. None of that fire from when we started Initiation Night.
She sighed, resigned. “Okay.”
I successfully broke down some of her walls, but I hated the dejected air surrounding her. This was still a win, though. And if I had to spend the rest of our time in this godforsaken place resurrecting the old Ella I loved, I’d gladly do so.
I inched my hand her way.
She stared at it.
I was giving her the choice to accept me for I had yearned to hold her hand for weeks.
And when her fingers hesitantly reached out for mine, I released a breath I didn’t realize I was holding in. Tension coiled deep in my muscles evaporated like mist.
We wove our fingers together.
Calmness seeped through my pores.
“Let’s go, sweetheart.” I squeezed her hand the way I did every time I got off my motorcycle, every time I tugged her closer for a kiss, and every time I made love to her.
Then I veered us out of Room 208 and walked down the vacant hallway, towards the nurse’s office.
I was holding the hand of the girl I loved and she gave it to me willingly.
Though I was elated this instant, I knew this feeling might be short-lived.
Because our next stop?
It was my personal hell.
Ella
Cade’s fingers threaded with mine sparked a tendril of jubilance in my veins. I’d always loved the feel of his slight calluses against my softer skin.
The fondest memory I recalled of those hands was when they mapped the lines of my body like they were travelling on an endless road, leaving trails of goosebumps in their wake. Caressing me in the kind of places where the sun didn’t shine but where the stars did…until I was love drunk, floating on a cloud of ecstasy with his name on my lips.
Cade tugged me along the third floor hallway. It fostered a spine-chilling ambiance that was straight out of my favourite gothic romance novels. The light emanating from his torch lit up our path, while mine hung uselessly by my side.
