AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Terror tore him open inside. He sprang up to fight, but now there were six Rudys, a mass of suffocating bodies driving him back as one of them sauntered towards Lily, waving a burning branch. He glanced back, his sweaty face split by a mocking grin. Thrust the flame into the fuel.
The wood ignited instantly, flames leaping to lick at Lily’s ragged skirts. Bruno struggled, shoving, punching, howling Lily’s name.
She yelled back, but the sound came from so far away—
The image splintered.Thud, he was on a floor, in the dark. Naked, sweaty. He looked around frantically for his attackers—
Lily was huddled against the wall, naked. Her were hands over her nose. Her eyes were huge. Oh God. What the fuck had he done.
It took him about six attempts to get words out, his voice shook so hard. “You…all right?”
She lifted her hand, looked at it. Blood trickled from her nose. His horror soured into shame. “Oh, fuck,” he muttered. “Did I do that?”
“I’m OK.” She touched her nose. Blood reddened her fingers.
“That wasn’t the question.” He tried to get up. Thudded down onto his ass, still shaking. He hadn’t even thought about the nightmares. How dangerous they might be for her. Hadn’t even warned her. Fucking idiot. He’d just drifted off, in a post-coital haze. La-di-dah. Zzzz.
“It’s my own fault,” she said softly. “I should have known better. You were having the mother of all nightmares, and yelling my name, and I, um…tried to grab you. To wake you up. Big mistake.”
He cringed. “Oh, God, Lily. I’m sorry.”
“It’s OK, really,” she assured him. “I’m not—”
“I could have fucking killed you!” he roared. “Do you realize that? How close you came?”
She shrank back. “You didn’t,” she said. “So chill. No harm done.”
“No harm done?” His voice cracked. “You’ve got a fucking broken nose, and you have the nerve to sayno harm done?”
She palpated her nose. “Not broken. Just, you know. Bumped.”
“By myfist?That’s not a bump! Isluggedyou, goddamnit!”
“Well, and so? You’re not helping matters by yelling at me. You were dreaming. It’s not your fault. Get the fuck over it.”
Her attitude was so calm, in the face of all the apocalyptic doom he was feeling. It had a weird effect on him. Like a knot, slipping loose.
He fell into pieces. Shaking with silent sobs. He dropped his face into his hands, mortified. Lily grabbed him, but he flinched away flinging her arms off. “Don’t touch me!”
“No way!” she yelled back, savagely. “You can’t do that to me! You can’t push me away! I won’t let you! Not anymore!”
“I just don’t want you to get hurt!” he bellowed back.
She grabbed him again, and what could he do? Slug her again?
Aw, fuck it. Let her hug him if she wanted to risk it. It was her skin. He kept his face covered, and just endured the silent, racking sobs. He couldn’t make any sound. Pressure in his throat kept building. His voicebox was imploding. A burning, crushing ache. He didn’t even try to stop crying. He knew when he was pounded.
After a while, the weight of her arm across his shuddering back came into focus. Her cheek was pressed against his shoulder. Drops of moisture tickled, cold against his back. She was crying, too. Did not help. Not that he had any right to complain, after scaring her, popping her in the nose. Letting her watch his nervous breakdown up close.
Lily went into the bathroom, came out again a moment later. The bed sagged as she sat again, her warm body pressed against his. Thigh to thigh, shoulder to shoulder. She shoved tissue into his hand. He mopped up the snot, keeping his face averted. He felt like a helpless kid again, on those nights when he rolled into a ball and put a pillow over his head, when Rudy and Mamma were having at it.
She threaded her cold fingers through his. “Will you tell me?”
“Tell you what?” He was channeling his sullen, truculent Uncle Tony again. Hardwired to act like a butthead when he was stressed.
Lily was unfazed. “The nightmare.”
He shook his head, but she tugged his hand. “Tell me.”
