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He tenses. “What room?”
I swallow a pit. “I can’t…I can’t tell if I made it up. If it’s not real, something I saw from a movie…”
Donnelly is silent.
I tilt my chin to look up at him.
He has the back of his head pressed to the wall, but he looks down at me. “Does it have wallpaper?”
“Yeah.” My stomach sinks so low, I feel sick.
“What kind?” he breathes.
“Floral, something like your comforter only…older. From the nineties, maybe. Floorboards…but they’re all worn down, scuffed.”
Donnelly is even paler than usual. Then his phone rings in his pocket. I dig it out for him, and he reluctantly loosens his arm around me.
“It’s your dad,” I tell him.
He doesn’t answer it. “I know that room.”
“You do?” I twist around slowly to face him, knelt between his legs. “Where’s it from?”
Donnelly stares off before meeting my eyes. “The worst night of my life.”
My face falls. “The night I was kidnapped.” I only know his family took me because of the internet, but the details online are slim to none. The room is from that night. Hope suddenly swells inside me. “This is good, Donnelly. It means I remember something.”
It means I could remember so much more.
He looks gutted. “That’s the one thing I didn’t want you to remember.”
His pain is visceral, and I want to take it away somehow. I find his hand and touch our fingertips. Our breaths slow together, and his gaze draws back to mine.
“I’m okay,” I breathe. “I’m here now. I’m not there.” I know he’s trying to forget that past, and I’m chasing after it.
42
PAUL DONNELLY
Sitting on the floor with Luna, holding her, hearing she remembers that room and that place—last thing I wanna do is let her go. But my dad called.
“Are you going to call him back?” Luna asks, seeing the phone in my fist.
“If you’re still hoping to get drunk off my face, then I need to.” I pick myself off the floor and extend a hand to her. She hops up with my help, and I keep an arm around her hips. The AC/DC shirt rides on her thighs, teasing my gaze towards her pussy, and thank God I’ve got control of my cock and these fucking impulses—or else I’d be pounding inside her.
Virgin.
She thinks she’s a virgin.
Can’t forget.
Luna sees me checking her out. I’m also stalling on calling my dad back, and this is a much happier place to be, I’d say.
She touches my hand that’s clamped on her waist, tracing the veins spindling down my busted knuckles. “What would you do to her?” Luna asks, breathy and wanting. “Would you be slow and sweet or…?”
I drink her in. “I’d throw you on the bed for starters.”
She staggers, maybe actually drunk on me.
A grin edges across my mouth, and I eye the bed, the floral comforter. It wipes my smile away. Buy new bedding. Adding a shopping spree to my to-do list.
As much as I wanna get hot and heavy with her, I need to be the older, wiser one and lead this away from the promised land of our desires. For now. Dropping my arm from Luna, I focus back on my phone. “He’s gonna want to meet up…will you be okay if I go?” I ask her. “I can do this another day if—”
“I’ll be alright,” she interjects. “Will you?”
I nod, but my voice is tight when I say, “Yeah.”
Luna frowns, then raises a finger. “Can you hold on one sec before you go?”
I bob my head. “I can, I will.”
She’s already darting out of my bedroom. Orion bounds after her footsteps into the bathroom, and I have no idea what she’s doing.
The past week has been brutal. Our icy streak. Thought I lost her, honestly. Thought maybe it’s for the best…for her recovery. I hate thinking I could be hindering her from getting better. Then with the O’Malley shit, getting suspended, scaring her by fighting him—I fully expected Luna to pump the brakes, forget about me, and eventually play the field.
Tonight, she flipped the script, and I’m more hopeful again. Still, I’ve got some doubts. I’m worried she’ll only see me as a good time. A temporary fix.
With so much on my plate, I’m not letting that nag me right now. Gotta see my dad for the first time after we were in the holding cell. Gotta talk to my dad. Gotta trust my dad.
I run my hand through my hair a few times. Yeah. I can do this. Piece of cake, and I love some cheesecake. I can do it.
I have to do it.
Luna returns with a purple Sharpie. “Stay very still.” She uncaps the marker.
Just like that, the tension unwinds out of my body. I begin to grin. “I’m your wall. Have at me.” I spread my arms a bit, and she edges so close, my eyes on hers before she draws on my bare chest.
