“Mia, you have to wake up.” I pushed the strands from her face and swiftly rolled her over to the side as I continued to chant her name.
Mia’s lashes fluttered, then her eyes opened meeting mine. “Ollie?”
“I’m right here.”
“I couldn’t reach you,” she uttered.
My eyebrows pulled together. “What do you mean?”
“I heard you. I heard your voice. But I couldn’t see or touch you. You were talking to me in my head. It was dark. I was falling really, really fast and everything was closing in on top of me. Like being buried. I couldn’t breathe.”
“It’s gone now.”
“It’s the same dream over and over. And I’m stuck, and I can’t get out!” Tears sprang in her worried eyes, and fear had her in its death-grip as her body shook. It had been the first time she was able to remember. But now it all made sense.
My love’s brilliant mind played tricks on her, forcing her back to the girl she used to be—the girl who lacked emotion and was numb to it all. And it was all my fault.
“Look at me.” Her eyes snapped to mine, and I grabbed her hand and placed it over my chest. “You feel that? This is real. Whatever’s got a hold of you in here,” I tapped her head, “it’s working really hard to turn that fucking switch again. But I have a hold on you too, and I’m never letting go.”
She let out a substantial and extended breath, the anxiety leaving along with it before she curled into me. I dragged my fingers through her hair, knowing it wouldn’t be long before the shithead Scott came in to pull me back to my room. “Don’t go,” she whispered through the darkness. “I don’t want you to go. Not tonight.”
The last bloody thing I wanted right now was to leave her. She finally remembered, and knowing Mia, she’d be up all night without an ounce of sleep, replaying her terror over and over again. “I’ll be right back. Let me go talk to the wanker.”
Back on my feet, I walked to the door and poked my head through. “I’m staying.”
Scott’s brows dipped. “No.”
“She fucking remembers. I’m not leaving her alone. I’m staying.”
Scott pulled me from the door and slammed me against the wall. The sound echoed down the dark hallway, and I pushed him off me. “You’re going to ruin everything,” he seethed.
“Ruin what? Give it up, Scott. It will never happen between the two of you.”
Scott turned his head down the hall and chuckled under his breath. “That’s not what I’m fucking talking about.”
“What is it then?”
The red-head took a step back and silence fell between us.
“Just go then,” he stated with his arms in the air. “This is on you two.”
Without wasting another second away from her, the door closed behind me, and I slipped out of my clothes, went back to her side, and peeled off her tank. I hooked my fingers at the sides of her panties, taking those off too.
Both completely stripped bare, her breasts pressed against my chest and we pieced back together— heart to heart, limbs entangled— with my throbbing knob against her heat. “Go to sleep now,” I whispered as my fingers kneaded along the muscles of her back. “I have you.”
Her breathing steadied as my fingers moved along her thigh and pulled her leg over mine, massaging and annihilating all the fear built up inside her, until finally, she drifted back to sleep.
Never again would she be left alone with the dark because the night was when our demons came out to play. And our demons played nicely together, leaving the two of us alone.
Chapter Twenty
“Make love to her like youmean it.”
—Oliver Masters
mia.
I’D KIDNAPPED OLLIE and Zeke and escaped to the group therapy room to get away from the dark cloud that always hovered over the school. It had been months since I’d played the piano, and for once, both Ollie and Zeke needed a lighter day. The sun decided to show its beautiful rays, but the lawn was littered with students.
