He means that if we were together, he’d keep me on a leash.
He’d keep me bound like I’m an object or a pet. A fuck doll like he called me back at the bar.
A doll who’s blinking up at him and whose lips he’s playing with, whose wrist he’s holding captive and whose nails are digging intohiswrist.
“A girl like me?” I whisper.
“Raw, natural and stunning.”
Did he just… Did he just describe me the same way I described this bridge?
He did, didn’t he?
Something blooms in my chest. Something like flowers. Gardenias, the symbol of secret love.
“I… You…”
He puts pressure on my chin then. “If you were mine, I wouldn’t let you ride around on that bike of yours in the middle of the night either.”
“My bike?”
“Because you do that, don’t you?” He swipes his thumb on my lip, an impatient movement. “When you think everyone is asleep, you sneak out of the house. You take out your bike and you go on rides. You ride for hours and come back at the break of dawn.”
Yeah, I’d do that.
I’d take my bike out for a ride. I’d come here or go to my other favorite places and stay out for hours. But I’d be careful not to wake anyone up. Leah would’ve been furious.
But I didn’t know that someone was awake. That someone knew about my nightly excursions.
“Y-you know about that?”
“Clearly, not everyone was asleep.”
“But you never said anything.”
“Maybe I was keeping your secret too,” he whispers with grave and gorgeous eyes.
I don’t see it coming – what I do next.
Maybe it’s the fact that he called me stunning and he’s been talking about me being his. Or the fact that he just told me he is my secret keeper.
He’s been my secret keeper like I’ve been his.
Whatever the reason is, it makes me close the remaining distance and let go of his wrist. It makes me put my hand on his bicep and tilt up my neck and go in search of his mouth.
It makes me kiss him. Or try to.
Because he stops me at the last second.
He lets go of my hand, the one he had in his hold all this time, and grabs my hair in a fist, pulling me back.
With a low, dangerous tone, he tells me, “It’s time to go back.”
Chapter Ten
The Broken Arrow
Ineed a smoke.
