AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yes. It was just the two of us that night.”
“What happened?”
The deep low tones of his voice vanish. “A man hit her. He was speeding. In the corner of the back bumper. It flipped the car. Just like a P.I.T. maneuver. That’s why I got so agitated the day that man almost drove into you. It… took me back.”
My fingers dig into his arm, squeezing tightly. “Did they find him?”
His breath staggers as his eyes lock onto mine as if desperate to ground themselves to my face. “Yes.”
“And did he go to prison for it?”
“No. They didn’t even arrest him.”
“What?” I whisper, my hand reaching for my throat. “What happened to the driver?”
“She died.”
“Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what that must—” I stop, exhaling a frail breath. “And I’m sorry but it wasnotyour fault. You were basically a baby.”
“I know that too. Or part of me does. The part that doesn’t believe he’s a monster.”
A cold dew mists my skin as he says the word.
“I’ve known monsters,” I respond. “You’re not one of them. Not even close.”
The muscles of his arm tense beneath my fingers. “I want to know the monsters who’ve hurt you, Indigo. I need to know them.”
I nod. “Maybe some other day.”
He turns more, hauling me closer, staring down into my face. “I don’t tell that story a lot. I feel safe with you, Indigo. I’m scared by how safe I feel.”
“Scared for who?”
“For both of us.”
“Well, you know that saying… The only thing to fear is fear itself.”
The light turns up behind his eyes and he lets out the first real sign of a smile since he got back.
“Your turn now,” he says, his timbre shifting out of the shadows.
“What do you mean?”
“I played for you. I want my poem.”
I watch as a wall begins to ascend around him, closing him off once again, his spine straightening, his shoulders unhunching, his eye contact bolder, his countenance more lethal.
“Fine.”
I reach over and grab the book from on top of the lacquered ebony of the piano lid, but he takes it from me swiftly.
“Not like that, Indigo.”
“What?”
“First, you’re going to take off your clothes for me.” My lips open wide as his eyes drop instantly to the tongue inside my mouth. “Then you’re going to go to the wall on the far side.” He tips his head a little towards the darker wall on the far left, the one lined with just two short shelves and some artwork above it. “And take that riding crop off the wall, and bring it to me.”
“What?!”
