Cute. As. Hell.
And finally fucking mine.
“So, you’re telling me it was the mask that did it for you, huh?” I tease, a slow grin tugging at my mouth. “And here I was believing it was my fat cock.”
“Definitely the mask. The fat cock was just a nice bonus,” she chirps, leaning forward to press a quick, playful kiss to my lips.
The silence returns, but it’s heavier now. The questions I’ve been burying for four years start to crowd my mind, demanding space.
“Why stalk me?”
Her body shifts against mine, a restless movement. She shrugs, trying to play it off as nothing. “Because it was easier. Safer.”
“Safer?” I sit up slightly, the word echoing in my head. “What the fuck does that mean?”
"Is that what I said?" The laugh that comes out has a thin wire of panic running through it. "I don't think that's what I said at all. Nope. Probably just your hearing. Getting old, you know. That's definitely it. Totally."
Before I can pin her down, Marigold is scrambling up. Her head is on a swivel, her eyes locking onto her discarded hoodie. She jumps to her feet, snatching it from the floor and yanking it over her head in a blur of frantic motion. “This has been fun. We should do it again sometime. Not now. Gotta go. Okay? Thanks! Bye!”
I’m up and snatching her hand before she’s even a foot from me, my fingers shackling her wrist to stop the flight. “You’re not fucking running, little shadow.”
"I'm not running."
"No? Then what are you doing?"
She lifts her chin with great dignity. "I'm walking.Fast."
I laugh and pull her back before she gets anywhere, guiding her down until she's straddling my lap. The warm bare heat of her settles against my cock and I ignore the ache of it. Not yet. I brush a stray tendril of gold from her face, my touch lighter than I feel. “Stop hiding.”
Marigold’s shoulders slump. The fight drains out of her, replaced by a sigh so heavy it feels like it could pull the floor out from under us. It’s warning me to tread carefully.
Curling my knuckle under her chin, I force her head up until I can drown in those beautiful, haunted eyes. “What are you hiding from, beautiful?”
“You know how I stalk you?” I nod, my grip tightening just a fraction. She swallows hard. “So, I have one of my own. Sort of. Kind of. I think.”
“Clarify,” I growl.
The sound makes her shiver, a delicate ripple over her skin.
For the first time in the years I’ve known her, the sunshine mask she wears shatters. Her expression turns deathly serious. “I’m almost positive the man I killed six years ago is back from the dead. And he’s found me again.”
What the fuck?
Did she….
Yep. Pretty sure my little pitch-black ray of sunshine just admitted to homicide. There should be a thousand things wrong with how much that confession turns me on, but here I am, my dick hitting a level of hardness that's almost painful.
“Tell me about it.”
Her index finger begins to trace the crude, jagged letters she carved into my chest, her touch light as if the feel of her own name is the only thing soothing her. “I didn’t know Damon wasevil when we first got together. I didn't know he was bad at all. He was an expert at hiding that part of himself.”
"Most monsters don't show you that part until they're sure they have you somewhere you can't easily leave," I say quietly.
She nods, the motion small. “I didn’t even realize he was isolating me until it was too late. The first time he hit me, I was so shocked thatIwas the one apologizing tohim.” A hollow sound moves through her. "Before him, I had fire in me, Tomcat. I wasn't scared of anything. That was before I looked the devil in the eyes and understood there was a real chance he was going to drag me into hell with him." Her voice drops. "He did, too."
I've seen the scars. Slight silver marks scattered across her skin. I know the marks from wounds that never had the luxury of healing right. I know the weight of trauma you don't talk about until the silence starts to choke you, so I never pushed.
Until now.
