10:57 A.M.
“How much longer are we planning on hiding out in here?”
“I'm not hiding out,” Indigo immediately protested, her cheeks flushed at the lie, and she was damn adorable looking all offended, pretending that she didn't know exactly what he was talking about.
“Okay,” Voodoo agreed, leaning back against the headboard. If she wasn't ready to leave his room and face the outside world yet, she didn't have to. Wasn't like he was complaining about keeping her all to himself.
“I'm not,” she insisted, jutting out her bottom lip, daring him to disagree.
He could, because she was hiding out in there, but he wouldn't, because he got it. Indigo hadn't just been through a trauma lasting the several months she’d been held hostage by Dr. Gardner and experimented on, she had been through a lifelong trauma, and meeting new people right now seemed to be more than she could handle.
Even though in reality she had nothing to worry about. She’d already met his team, and Rose, Cassandra, and Whitneywere all wonderful people who were all dying to meet the newest member of their unconventional little family.
“Really, I'm not.” Indigo huffed, and Voodoo couldn’t help but chuckle.
Reaching out, he tapped the tip of her nose. “You are, but it’s okay.”
“You're supposed to be on my side here,” she said with a pout.
“Always on your side,” he assured her. They’d spent most of the time these last three days since she’d woken up talking when she wasn't sleeping. There’d been some making out too, and as much as he loved touching and kissing Indigo, he’d enjoyed getting to know her better just as much.
“I'm just … it’s … I don’t …” Indigo didn't even seem to know what she was thinking or feeling, she just knew she was scared and was avoiding everything she thought was going to give her anxiety.
“It really is okay, honey.” Leaning over, he pressed his lips to hers, infusing his growing feelings for her into the soft touch. What his girl needed was reassurance. He could tell her that everything was going to be okay, and she didn't have anything to worry about, but she wasn't going to believe it. Instead, he had to try to show her. Which was what he had been doing, interspersing stories about himself and his childhood and adolescence, along with stories of his team and the three women who had recently become part of them.
For a second, she wouldn't meet his gaze, just picked at the edge of his sheets. “What if they don’t like me?” she finally whispered, chancing a quick glance at him. “What if they think I'm … you know … pathetic or something?”
“Why would they think that? Why wouldn't they like you? What is there not to like about you?”
“Not like I've had people lining up to like me, and my ex, he was always telling me I didn't deserve?—”
“I think you’d better not finish that sentence if you don’t want me to track down your ex-husband and kill him,” he said mildly, even though the familiar burn of anger was spreading through him.
Indigo smiled. “It’s not just him, it’s everyone. I've never really had friends. The other kids never wanted to play with me, I was dirty andalways covered in bruises, then both my exes isolated me. I'm not good at interacting with people.”
“Then this is the perfect family for you,” he assured her. “Are you sure you're not worried about anything else?” While he didn't want to push her, and he wouldn't blame her if she had reservations about some of the people living there, he had to know if she was as afraid of Rose and Whitney as she was of what they would think of her.
“What else would I worry about?” she asked, brows knitting together.
“Rose is Dr. Gardner’s sister, and Whitney is the one who created the drug.” Just because he’d gotten to know both of them and knew they were good people didn't mean Indigo would agree. At least not yet. Not until she got to know them and saw for herself.
“But you said Dr. Gardner tortured Rose as he was raising her, and she’s nothing like him. You also said Whitney didn't mean for the drug to do what it did, and she was just a kid. I don’t blame her if that’s what you're asking me, and I don’t think Rose is like her brother. It’s just they’re important to you, they’re your family, your real family, even if they’re not technically related to you, and I don’t want them to not like me.”
“They’re going to like you.”
For a long moment, she just stared into his eyes as though she was trying to see all the way down into his mind to ascertain if he was telling the truth. Voodoo tried to keep his gaze open and honest, allowing her to see the truth of his words. In reality, the longer she held off on meeting the others, hiding out in his room, the more she was going to build this up in her head, making it much bigger and scarier than it needed to be, and the harder it would be to walk out there and meet everyone.
They couldn’t stay there forever, but they could stay there as long as she needed.
“You're sure?” Indigo asked in a small voice.
“Positive.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“You're right, we can't stay in here forever.”
