He’s too caring. Dangerously sweet. So goddamned self-sacrificing.
Forever the hero.
Doesn’t he know he’s in the wrong story?
With nothing but my sweatpants left, I stand before him. Bare. On display with tears in my eyes and scores across my pale skin.
Not once does he break eye contact.
“You’re too good.”
“I’m not,” he rasps back.
I jam my fingers into the waistband of my pants and shove until they pool at my feet near his knees.
The struggle to not look broadcasts across his face, his features tightening. His breath coming faster.
“Emmett, I’m no fucking good, baby. I’m not.” His breath puffs hard enough I feel it on my exposed skin, his fingers twitching against his thighs. “All I can think about is making you feel better. Good.” He licks his lips, his nostril flaring. “Giving you a new memory.”
The thickness in my throat is hard to swallow. “H-how?”
There’s a muscle in his jaw that jumps and the air shifts again, the cold long forgotten as heat pools in places I’ve never felt before.
It’s so foreign to have my heart thumping wildly, my tongue drying from my rapid breaths, mixed with the wicked despair embedded in my skin with each mark thathe can see.
With jerky movements, I move around Tristen to grab the soap and cover my skin in suds.
I feel so fucking exposed and antsy.
Gross and curious at the same time.
My skin both crawls and tingles, and I instinctively cover myself with one hand once I’m rinsed.
“How?” I ask again when his eyes flare, the color more vibrant than before, that swirling getting darker with each second that he stares up at me.
“By giving you all the control that was taken,” he rasps and reaches up, twirling the loose material of his shirt up until it’swrapped around his neck like a noose, the bulk of it held lightly in my fingers. “Take it back, Emmett. Use me.Green.”
My breath catches.
And for the first time in months … my stomach flips.
“I d-d-don’t know, Tristen.” He licks his lips, and I can’t help the way that I watch his tongue slide across them in a way I wish I could. “I’ve been such a dick to you.” My eyes burn fiercely, my heart fluttering in my chest.
“I understand why you were and I’m telling you that it’s okay as long as you promise me something.”
I nod. “Okay.Okay, yeah. I’ll promise.”
He inches closer, his breath tickling the base of my stomach, making me clench.
No one has ever been this close to me.
“Promise me you’ll try your best. That you’ll take what you need. From me, from anyone that can give it to you.Promise me you won’t fade away.”
Tears prick my eyes, and though I don’t know if I can keep that kind of promise … I nod.
His grip sears against my hips, sure and tight yet somehow gentle at the same time.
“Green.”
