Page 144 of The Unravelings

AKA you’ll be ours again.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head off,” I grumble, waving a sleepy hand, earning a slight chuckle.

“Fine. But we’re going to have a long talk about why you went into a bar bathroom with Malic and came out looking satisfied,” he practically hisses the last part with possession.

My eyes pop open, the exhaustion I felt ten seconds ago vanishing. The fuck we are. I will not go into detail about how much I enjoyed my time with Malic in the bathroom. I mean, he may be slightly unhinged, but that was a private moment.

“How do you…” I trail off, scowling into the darkness.

“Surveillance cameras. I’m a hacker, remember?” he huffs, holding me tightly. “Now, go to sleep. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

Yeah, I don’t think we will.

41

Olivia

The moment my mind comes back to the land of the living after a full night’s rest, the first thing I notice is the radiating heat engulfing every inch of me. Fuck. It feels so good. Without thinking about it, I snuggle into it further. Wrapping my entire body against it until every inch of my exposed skin is touching the source of the heat. It warms me like a heater in the middle of winter. A sigh rocks through me as I cling to it, reveling in the peace it gives me. A sense of safety engulfs me.

My brows furrow when I feel the large hand squeezing my ass through my gym shorts, constantly squeezing and not letting up. Wait. A hand? On my ass? The fuck?

I stiffen, plotting the ass-grabber’s murder. If I could reach my knife hidden beneath my mattress, I could get them away from me. Or stab them. Whichever happens first.

I search around, trying to discreetly grab my knife again while holding my breath. But then, JJ’s worried face flashes in my mind. I freeze, holding my breath again. Right, JJ. I blow out a breath. He was here. In my dorm room. While a violent thunderstorm blew through town, I cowered beneath my blankets with Waffles on my chest, protecting me.

JJ broke in. He walked into my room and held me while I slept so I wouldn’t be afraid. He came through the rain to protect me from something I shouldn’t be afraid of. The rain. The lightning. The thunder. He held me close, letting me use him as a shield.

And the worst part? I slept like a baby in his arms. In fact, it’s the best sleep I’ve had in years. Since the night my life completely changed.

Peeking an eye open, I sigh into JJ’s neck, where my face is currently snuggled. A familiar comfort washes over me. Memories. Our times together. It sits there in my mind, playing on repeat. All the happy times we shared.

Sunlight beams through the lone window of my dorm room, lighting up JJ’s features. Pulling back slightly, I let my eyes roam over his face, slack with sleep as he blows out several breaths. His firm, naked chest heaves with his breath.

He looks like an angel. Like the JJ I knew so many years ago.

For the first time in five years, I’m close to him. Entangled with him in my bed. Like so many years before, when he’d sneak into my bedroom and lie with me. Or break me out and take me away from my prison after destroying the bars on my window. We always snuck around behind my dad’s back. I’m sure my father knew, though. Maybe he didn’t care as much when he took in the stray boy and trained him to do God knows what. I like to believe he forgot about me once he got his hands on a true prodigy. I was a girl. A daughter he didn’t want. A daughter he tortured for his own delight. But once that boy stepped up to the plate, he took all the pressure off me.

Thanks to him, I was kind of safe. Until I wasn’t. Until Franco blamed me for whatever reason and slit my throat and killed my mom and sister. I long for them, too. Hearing their laughs and guidance. Despite my mom’s inability to speak up for us kids against my father’s abuses, she was still my mom. Sophia was still my sister.

And we all died that night. Them in big ways. And me? I died piece by piece, trying to recover and rebuild myself into who I am today.

I lick my lips, trying to will the terrible memories from my mind. I hate thinking about them. The past. The torture. My death. Their deaths. I used to be able to block it out and force it into the back of my mind. Not here, though. I’m reminded of it every day when I look around.

JJ’s chest heaves a breath, and a small snore escapes through his lips. A serene expression passes over him as his lips twitch into what I can only describe as a smile. His brown, shaggy hair sticks up in every direction, and sleep marks take over his face. My eyes trail toward his ears, noting his hearing aids nestled there. Something he never used to sleep in.

My fingers brush against the faint scar on his chin, the only remnant besides the loss of his hearing from the accident he was in as a kid that took his parents and landed him on Franco’s radar.

My heart chokes in my chest, nearly stalling as I take him in. All of him. Every inch. A familiar longing settles deep inside me. A yearning I had after that fateful night that clung to me like a fucking monster. In my conflicted mind, I still yearned for the boys who broke me out of my room and protected me from my father’s wrath. Not the men who stood over me and slit my throat.

My thumb brushes against his scar several times without thinking, losing myself in the peaceful aura radiating off him. I lean into it. Wanting to capture it for myself and stay in this heavenly bubble all day.

I don’t want to leave. Or think of the ramifications of losing myself in him.

“What are you thinking about, Livy?” he rasps without opening his eyes.

His fingers unhook from my ass, and a muttered sorry falls from his lips as he trails his fingers over the exposed flesh of my hip where my shorts have fallen. I shiver under his movements as goosebumps spread across my heated skin. I swallow hard, ignoring the way his soft fingertips feel against my skin like a memory drawing me back in time when we lay in bed together. Or the treehouse, where he held me close and rubbed my back, exploring my flesh without taking our clothes off.

“I yearned for this after my recovery,” I mutter, tracing his scar again, shivering once more when his movements stop abruptly.