AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I wanted to be wanted, wholly and unconditionally. Just once.
“Christ, Charlie, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he whispered soothingly, and wiped at my cheeks. “I’m sorry, please stop crying.”
“Leave.” I pressed against his chest, but he didn’t move away. “Let go of me!”
Deacon’s hands immediately left my face and landed on the wall on either side of my head, but his body didn’t leave mine. Instead, he dipped in closer until his lips were at my ear, just like the day before, and said, “I’m an asshole. I’ve lived the last—God, I don’t know how long, just waiting for the next girl, and the next. Names and faces didn’t matter, just as long as they were gone as fast as they got there. You want me to go, then I’m gone. But I know I won’t get this chance again, so just listen.
“I’ve never been haunted by a girl the way you haunt me, Charlie Easton. It wasn’t because I hadn’t had you, or because I knew I shouldn’t. That knowledge and everything I felt scared the shit out of me, and I knew I had to do something to put an end to it. So, yes, I fucked up. I will apologize forever if I have to, but know that I’ve never hated myself, or how I am, more than I did that day. And you? All I saw was you, more than ever.”
One of his hands slowly fell from the wall back to my cheek, and he pulled back to look into my eyes. Indecision, fear, and need swirled in their light depths.
“Hurting you has killed me. Unaware . . . yeah? I get it now. Maybe with everyone else, but I’ve never been more aware of anything or anyone.”
My body sagged against the wall when he pushed away, and after another second, he turned and stepped away.
I needed to let him go.
Step.
A guy like Deacon Carver would only do what Ben had done, and more.
Step.
But my body was screaming in protest the loss of his touch, and I’d only lost it seconds ago.
Step step.
I swallowed past the tightness in my throat and dropped my head to stare unseeing at the floor.
Step.
I pushed down all of my fears—of rejection, of getting my heart broken, of simply speaking my mind on a whim, and said, “This is usually the part of the book where the hero kisses the girl.”
Silence.
“I don’t know how to be that hero, Charlie Girl.”
I slowly lifted my head and found Deacon facing me. Chest moving with each exaggerated breath, hands slightly flexing like he didn’t know what to do with them.
“If you want me to be that guy, I would only hurt you more.” But even as he spoke the words, he took a couple steps back toward me. “I can’t compete with whatever it is you read.”
If only he knew that he wasn’t so different.
I lifted a shoulder. “This is also a house of superheroes.”
Deacon smirked. The slant of his lips challenged and warned and promised.
My stomach warmed at the sight, my body was already buzzing with anticipation.
“Now that I can compete with.”
He ate up the distance in two steps, and pulled me from the wall as his mouth fell onto mine.
One of his hands pressed against the small of my back, molding our bodies closer and closer, the other curled around my neck again. Cradling and guiding, strength and tenderness.
I clung to his shirt as our mouths moved in perfect sync, trying to hold on to this kiss that was everything.
Everything I’d dreamed of.
