“I told you; my aunt raised me from middle school.” He shrugged, before relenting, “Before that… my life was chaotic. It was normal to me, but I didn’t realize other people didn’t live like that, you know?”
I bugged my eyes and nodded. “Oh, I know that life.”
He shushed me with a kiss that lingered only to wince when I caught the sore side of his mouth.
“You’re really not going to tell me what happened?” I couldn’t keep the disbelief at bay.
“Lift up my shirt,” he whispered, a hint of a dare coming into his dark-blue eyes.
I glanced down to his lap and shifted my hips, tugging his shirt upward. I ran my hand up the right side of his chest, and he squirmed and made a sound like I’d tickled him. It stole my attention, and I smiled at him, only for my face to freeze when I looked down.
“Anthony,” I blurted out his name, only to clap a hand over my own mouth and glance toward the door.
He shushed me and pulled me to him, “It’s okay. I’m fine. I’m with you, right?”
He kissed away my questions, until I gave up trying to ask them and stared hopelessly at him.
“Did you wreck?”
He shifted his head, “No. I decided to skip a club meeting and spend a night claiming you.”
My jaw dropped, before he quickly added, “It was a good trade as far as I’m concerned.”
His hand drifted down to my hip and squeezed.
“They really did this to you, because of me?” It broke my heart to know that someone had beaten him so severely because of him spending time with me. “You could have left and came back… or took a rain check.”
He slowly shifted his head, “Nah.”
I sat up, not liking it at all.
“Promise me you won’t let it— There is no reason for you to look like this, Anthony. I mean it.” I chased his short tuft back so I could check his entire face for further injury.
All the while he stared at me like I was beyond cute.
I huffed, finally accepting that I’d seen the worst of it.
“I can do that, but only because I’m not going to have to choose.”
I stopped toying with the bottom of his shirt and raised my gaze to meet his, “You didn’t have to choose last time.”
He shook his head, that silly smile not budging, “Yeah, but what I mean is… You don’t have to be embarrassed about having a single room. I’m gonna marry you, and you’re going to come back to Swanwick with–”
I shook my head the instant he started talking about Swanwick and home.
I couldn’t go back there.
His hands framed my face and he slowly nodded, “It’s true. I’m gonna wife you Crystal, you’re mine. I’m not talking shit. We’re going to get a wedding license, and a ring, and–”
I tried to place four fingers over his mouth, but he drew them in, sucked them clean and spat them back out.
“It’s happening. Stop resisting.”
“There is no such thing as a wedding license, you are talking shit.”
He squinted at me, until I laughed, and conceded, “It’s called a marriage license, and I can’t go back to Swanwick, Anthony. There’s nothing for me but drama and ugly memories.”
“We’ll make new ones.”
