Home.
His eyes closed.He listened to her breathing.That soft, steady breathing.The most important sound in his world.
“It was…more than just fine for you, wasn’t it?”Lily’s whispered question.
His head turned toward her.“I fucked you twice, back to back.”
“So, you liked it?”
“Likeisn’t the right word.If I didn’t think you were going to be too sore, I’d be fucking you again.My main goal in life now is to fuck you as much and as often as I possibly can.”
Silence.“I thought we were catching a killer.”
“Yes.We will.We are.But…he’ll be gone soon.”
“Will…I be gone soon, too?Our relationship over?”
Don’t hold too tightly…“I want to fuck you as much and as often as I possibly can,” he repeated.
The silence grew around them.She snuggled closer.Her soft breaths lulled him.He thought she was going to sleep, but…
“I never felt this way, not with anyone before.It’s like I don’t have to hide.”
You don’t.Not with me.
“I could let go with you.I couldfeel.”
What do you feel, Lily?
“Thank you, Atlas.”She pressed a kiss to his shoulder.Then she snuggled even closer.She put one soft arm over him, over the scars that he carried from an attack long ago.She didn’t flinch or pull back.She settledcloser.
She was soft and warm and precious against him.A gift he’d never expected.
He’d learned a lesson long ago from that beautiful butterfly.You had to be patient to get what you wanted.You had to wait.You had to be still.You had to let the beauty not ever sense the threat.
If you were patient enough, if you played the scene just right…what you wanted would come to you.You just couldn’t let your prey see the threat.
She nestled against him.
I will not damage your wings.
He stared at the butterfly.Golden wings.Sprinkles of darkness.So still.He turned in the bed, the better to see it, to reach it, and his fingers swept out.Clean fingers now.The soft light from the lamp shone on the butterfly as he reached for it.
His bedroom door creaked open.
“Atlas?I—what are you doing?”
The door banged into the wall.His mother rushed toward him.He tried to snatch back his hand, but she caught it.
“Oh, God, oh, God.You kept it as a trophy, didn’t you?Just like him.Just like him…”
Footsteps pounded.Not soft, rushed steps like hers had been.Harder.Deeper.
His mother sucked in a breath.“Don’t do it,” she whispered.Begged.“Don’t you dare do it, do you hear me, Atlas?”
But he hadn’t been doing anything.
Lie.I was…I wanted to bring the butterfly back.Because I didn’t mean to hurt it.I would never mean to hurt something so pretty?—
