His fingers ghost over my cheek. “Where did you go again?”
“Tell me…” I mutter, “The kitty, why not call her Ginger? She’s a ginger cat.”
His pale brows lift, but he doesn’t comment on the change of
topic. “I can’t call her that. That’s what I call my sister Gigi. Besides, kitten’s got a hiccup.”
“She does?”
He nods. “All the time.”
Okay, first he calls his blond sister Ginger? And second, aw! He gave kitty a name, something my sister never did.
“Naming her means you want to keep her,” I inform him.
“It does? Is it like magic? I name her and I get to keep her?”
“Sure.”
“Then how about I name you, too?” His voice is warm, his tone serious, just as serious as the hard-on pressed between my legs. “Will you stay here with me?”
My heart stops, then starts again with a thump. “You want me here?”
“Fuck yeah. We can… watch movies, and talk, and laugh, and sleep together. I’ll take good care of you.”
Aw, be still my heart. “Sounds good.”
He rolls on top of me, braced on those powerful arms, gazing down at me, the head of his cock nudging at my entrance, making me moan. “I’ll show you how good it can be.”
“Merc…” He teases, and I arch up helplessly.
He doesn’t move, though, doesn’t enter me. He looks dead serious when he says, “Trust that I’m here to stay. To help and to hold you. Be with me, Cosie. I’ll tell you why I can’t sleep at night. I’ll tell you everything.”
I laugh shakily. “I’ll hold you to that.”
“You’d better.” He’s gazing down at me, blue eyes clear like summer skies. “It’s what I want. Ever since I met you, I knew there was something about you. From the first time I saw you, I thought… there she is.”
“You thought that?”
“Not in those exact terms. But it was as if I recognized you. I knew you. I knew you were the one for me.”
I have to lower my eyes, look away, because for some reason they feel too hot. I wind my arms around his neck and hold on because in all my life, I never had a real home, a steady home, always moving, always splitting up and wondering where I’d go next. Where I belonged.
And he’s taken me in and he feels like home to me.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Merc
The ax comes whistling down, and I’m running, bits of earth and sharp stones flying past me, cutting my legs and my back. The footsteps behind me are so heavy they make the ground shake under my feet.
A hand clamps on my arm, stopping me, lifting me up in the air.
Blood is spreading around us.
The bogeyman has a golden tooth. That’s all I see of his shadowy face. A golden tooth gleaming in the golden afternoon light.
Then I fall on my back, and the clouds whirl overhead. The stream gurgles, not far. I get up and splash down the bank. Faces leer at me from behind the trees, someone running alongside me, laughing when I try to run faster, easily keeping up.