My heart jumps in my chest.
Fuck… I love her.
“What about this one?” Her fingers dip down to the thin, spindly black branches that stretch along my left side, from my hip all the way up to my rib cage.
I shrug. “I just like it.”
It’s a lie. I got it as soon as I got out of prison, putting what happened there in the past in the hopes of leaving it there. The tree represents a new beginning, that I’m still here. Still alive. I walked through hell and made it out onto the other side. But I can’t bring myself to get into it because I’m still processing the fact I’m in love with this girl and the fact my admission doesn’t terrify me like I expected, it excites me.
She laughs, rolling over onto her back next to me, bringing the sheet up to cover her chest.
“Would you tattoo me?” she asks.
“What would you want me to tattoo?”
She fiddles with the butterfly necklace around her neck. “I’ve toyed with the idea of getting a butterfly.”
I groan, my head falling back against the pillow.
She braces herself on her elbows, pinning me with a look. “What’s wrong with a butterfly?”
“If I have to tattoo one more butterfly, I might kill myself.” If I had a dollar for every woman who wanted me to tattoo a butterfly on their body, I’d be a millionaire sunning myself of some beach in a ridiculously hot country right now.
“Well, if you won’t do a butterfly, looks like I’ll have to find someone else who will.”
In a flash, I’m on top of her and she squeals as I pin her wrists to the pillow either side of her head, wedging my hips between her thighs as a wave of possessiveness washes over me. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.”
I growl. This fucking girl loves to test me, pushing all my buttons, seeing how far she can push before I snap.
I dip down, brushing the tip of my nose along her jaw, breathing in the sweet floral scent of her soft skin. She shivers under my touch. “If you think I’d let anyone else mark what’s mine, you’re sorely mistaken.”
Desire flares in her eyes, her lips curve into a smile. “So…A butterfly then?”
With a roll of my eyes, I concede, knowing there’s no way I can say no to this girl. “A butterfly it is.”
She grins, clearly happy with herself as I roll off her, dropping onto the mattress beside her on my back.
Her phone buzzes on the table next to me. “Can you pass me that?”
“Sure.” I reach across for it. I don’t mean to look at the message illuminating the screen as I grab her phone, but it’s right there.
My heart slams to a halt in my chest, my eyes skimming over the message trying to process what I’m seeing.
There’s no way.
“What the fuck is this?” I ask Kaia, turning the screen around so she can see it.
Her face falls. “It’s nothing,” she replies, and she couldn’t be less convincing if she tried.
Isit up and angle myself towards her. “Don’t lie to me. Tell me the truth.”
She shifts to sit up against the headboard, bringing the sheet up to cover her bare chest. “I’ve been getting messages off an unknown number.”
Messages?“There’s more?”
She nods, taking her phone from my hand, swiping across the screen before handing it back to me and my heart thumps in my chest as I read through half a dozen messages, dating back two weeks, each one making me more and more nauseous.
