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“I know,” I replied, believing every word. Biting down on my lip, I turned to face him and said, “Don’t forget about me when you’re a rich and famous rugby player.”
“You never know,” he said with a smirk. “I might take you with me so you can cheer me on in the stands.”
Please do. Please take me away with you.
“You’re very sure of yourself,” I said instead.
“You can wear my number and shout, ‘Johnny, Johnny,’ from the stands.” He chuckled before settling back down to watch the game.
Don’t tempt me…
Sitting on the couch in his parents’ living room with a roaring fire crackling and the rain pelting down outside the huge bay window, I felt my body slowly relaxing as I tried to follow the match. I wasn’t forcing conversation to break uncomfortable silences because there weren’t any.
In this moment, being here with him was as easy as breathing. It was an odd reaction to being in such close proximity to Johnny, but there it was. I was enjoying being with him. He didn’t push me to talk and I liked that. He just sat beside me, with a huge cushion between us and Sookie at our feet as he barked orders at the television set.
When Johnny stretched his legs out on top of the coffee table, I waited for a good ten minutes before attempting to do the same, only to fail epically when my toes barely touched the corner before clattering to the floor. Chuckling softly, Johnny reached forward and dragged the table closer to the couch. Embarrassed, I kept my feet firmly on the floor.
Less than a minute later, Johnny reached over, lifted my legs, and placed them on the table. I turned to look at him, but his attention was back on the screen. Every once in a while, Johnny would pause the match to put some coal or blocks in the fire before settling back down on the couch. After the third time he did it, I pulled the cushion out of his way when he sat back down and held it to my chest. By the end of the match, our shoulders were touching.
I didn’t move away.
He was big and solid and warm and I liked the feel of him beside me.
A little while later, when my eyes began to droop, he lifted his arm, and I didn’t even flinch when it came down around my shoulder. Instead, I nestled my cheek against his side and closed my eyes, allowing myself to drift off to sleep without an ounce of fear in my heart because it couldn’t exist inside of me, not when this boy had his arm around me.
38She’s So Lovely
JOHNNY
It was her birthday.
Today was Shannon’s sixteenth birthday. And she was spending it with me. I was glad.
How crazy was that?
This girl who before Christmas was a total stranger, and since Christmas, I couldn’t imagine going through a day not thinking about.
I didn’t want to give her back. Something inside of me told me that if I did, she would return with another bruise. At least if I kept her with me, she would be safe.
There was something very fucked up about her life. Something that made me want to snatch her away and take her with me, wherever that may be.
I wasn’t stupid. I knew someone had put those marks on her face. And her thighs. And her arms. And I was fairly fucking sure that if I stripped the girl bare, I would find plenty more.
I didn’t know what was happening, or who was bullying her, but I would figure it out. Straight out asking her was out of the question, though. She was so goddamned guarded that it was almost impossible to penetrate the walls she built up around herself.
I thought I might be doing a good job, but if I pushed too hard too fast, she would retreat back in her shell. I wanted to smash that fucking shell and the bastards responsible for making her hide there in the first place.
She was lovely. Fucking lovely. She didn’t need to be hiding any of her shine behind those bleeding shutters.
Shannon shivered then and the movement distracted me. It was gone ten at night and she hadn’t opened her eyes once since falling asleep earlier this afternoon.
“Shh,” I whispered when she whimpered in her sleep.
I didn’t even try to stop myself from stroking her hair. I was beyond help when it came to her. I was beyond fucking stopping. Everything inside of me was shifting, honing in on this tiny girl.
Nuzzling her cheek against my thigh, Shannon nestled closer, curling up in the smallest ball I’d ever seen a person her age contort their body into.
Like the obsessive freak I was, I allowed my gaze to land on her bruised cheekbone for the millionth time tonight. I knew I shouldn’t look at it. It made my body thrum with rage. And still, I couldn’t stop myself. I stared at the mark on her face until I was sufficiently filled with enough anger to take down an entire village, and then I turned my attention to the bruises on her thighs.
