Carefully, I scoot down in the bed and pull the covers up to my chin. “Seriously, go already. You’re all keeping me awake.”
It’s a struggle to turn onto my right side, but I grind my teeth through the pain.
Mom and Dad come to each press a kiss against my temple, and I grip the covers tighter. My smile falters, and it’s becoming increasingly hard to keep up the front that I’m okay.
Finally, Dad says, “We’ll be back in a couple of hours. Get some sleep.”
“Okay.” I close my eyes and bury my face in the covers.
It takes forever until I hear the door click shut behind them, and it feels like a reservoir wall breaks. I gasp into the covers, trying to smother the sound.
Then someone sits down on the bed, and Jase says, “Can you move over a little?”
Letting go of my death grip on the covers, I scoot back to make space for Jase. He lies down and pushes his left arm under my head. With his right, he pulls me against his chest.
I glance up at his face, and the comforting sight of him makes my tears fall faster as I admit, “It’s hard.”
He brings his right hand to my cheek and brushes tenderly over my bruised skin, giving me a look filled with a world of understanding and care. “I know, babe. That’s why I’m not going anywhere.”
I’ve never seen this side of Jase before. He’s so … he’s a force of strength. He’s solid and unwavering, where I’m a mess with no ground beneath my feet.
I know I can’t cling to him and keep him from living his life, and it has me pressing my face to his chest as I whisper, “Jase?”
“Yeah?”
“You really don’t have to stay. I know you have things you need to get back to.”
I feel him press a kiss to my hair. “Nothing more important than you.”
And again, it’s not the words he says but the tone of his voice that gets to me. It smashes right through the feeble wall I tried to put up.
I smother the sob against his chest, and then his arms tighten around me, and he whispers, “Don’t pretend to be okay around me, Mila. I saw what happened. Nothing you say will keep me from being here for you every step of the way. Let me help you through this.”
I nod as my sobs grow harder, and this time I don’t cry for everything that was taken from me, but for the one thing that remained. Jase. And I love him so much more than I ever thought I could.JASEMila finally drifts off to sleep, and it gives me a moment to deal with my own wreckage left in the wake of her attack.
She feels fragile in my arms, and it makes me wonder how anyone could hurt her the way Justin did. How fucked up do you have to be to do something like that to another person?
But it wasn’t just any person. It was Mila.
My Mila.
For weeks I’ve been flirting with her, skirting around the attraction I feel for her. I didn’t dwell on the why I wanted to be with her as much as I did on the desire to have her.
Right now, the desire is MIA, and all that remains is the big fucking why. The why I managed to acknowledge but never got to share with Mila.
I love Mila. I love this girl so fucking much it scares the shit out of me.
I pull a little back so I can see her face. My eyes caress every inch of her, and the sight of the bruises grinds my heart to dust. Pressing a kiss to her forehead, I wrap her against my chest. I worry about the days ahead, and the pain Mila will still have to bear before she starts to heal.
I’ll take it in a heartbeat. God, please. Just lay it all on me. I can’t bear to see her hurting like this.
The silence of the hospital room weaves a cocoon around us until I’m focused on every breath she takes.
Mila’s body jerks suddenly, and it rips me out of the bubble I’m caught in. Her eyes fly wide open, filled with terror. Her breaths speed over her parted lips as if she’s just run a marathon.
“I’m here.” The words rush from me, and at least my voice gets through to her, and recognition dawns in her green gaze.
“Jase.” The sound of my name is filled with relief.
I move my right hand to the back of her head, and I press my forehead to hers. “I’m here, Mila.”
When she slowly relaxes back against me, I ask, “Are you okay?”
She shakes her head. “I… I keep getting flashes. It’s random and…”
I press a kiss to her forehead, and for a moment, her eyes drift shut. When I pull back, her face crumbles as she admits, “It feels like I’m stuck in a nightmare. Nothing stops. Not even for a second. Everything feels wrong and… just broken and empty.”