Page 93 of Temptation
“Thank God,” he murmured and took a step back from me.
“Were you…” I trailed off and took a step closer to him. “Were you worried about him?”
“No,” he answered fast, almost too fast, and I could see the turmoil inside of him. “I just know how much he means to you.” He avoided my eyes, grabbing the rail with a white-knuckled grip, but he couldn’t fool me.
He felt it last night. Felt the connection between the three of us, but I could be patient. I could wait for him to accept it fully without pushing him. Dylan was like a caged animal who wasn’t used to this.
When someone was fed poison and lies their entire life, robbed of love, they struggled to believe that better things could exist.
“Right,” I drawled. “He’s on his way, and he’s okay.” I smirked when the tick in his cheek started going off. “But something did happen with him.” Dylan’s head swiveled toward me, and the panic written there told me everything I needed to know.
He cared for Ash but was too stubborn to admit it.
“Ash’s brother is with him, and they’re almost here. I’m not sure what spooked him, Dy, but he sounded terrified. He asked me to pack my bags—”
“No!” Dylan intercepted. “You’re not leaving me, Skylar.”
Shaking my head, I came closer to him and pressed my hand to his chest. “No, I’m not leaving you, because you’re coming with us. Did you really think we were going to leave you behind, especially after last night?”
His eyes shuttered closed and as I skimmed my thumb over the bruise Ash left on his neck, he shuddered. “Sky,” he whimpered. “Please don’t.”
“It’s okay, Dylan. What happened is okay.”
“No, it’s not.” His eyes flew open, burning from pain. “I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have—”
“What?” I intercepted. “Let yourself go? Enjoy yourself for once in your life? You are not what they tried to make you be, Dylan. You are not a monster, and that control you’ve been holding onto… You can let go. You can let go with us.”
“I can’t,” he cried out and took a step back. “It’s here.” He pointed to his temple. “It’s all here. Everything I did. Everything I was supposed to do. I don’t know how to turn it off. I don’t know how to stop the voices. I don’t want you to hate me because you will. Both of you will end up hating me, and you’re going to leave me behind.”
My heart constricted, affected by the pain in his voice. I loathed them for what they did to him. I loathed Judah and Joanna for every bad thing they made him do, for everything he had to go through, and he had to do it all by himself. I didn’t know. I couldn’t have known. But if I did, I would’ve held his hand, and I would’ve tried to help.
“Dylan, I would never leave you. I can’t, darling. I can’t imagine my life without you. Even when I only thought about you as my brother, I couldn’t imagine my future without you in it, in one way or another.”
“Don’t pity me, Skylar. I can take everything, but I can’t take your pity.”
“This is not pity,” I replied, anger coating my words. “My love for you is not out of pity, but because of everything you did for me.”
“But I almost destroyed you!” he roared. “I forced you to marry me when I could’ve saved you from this town.”
“How? They would’ve found me no matter where I went. You kept me close. You didn’t force me to do anything I didn’t want to do.”
Slowly, as if I was approaching a wounded animal, I came to him and wrapped my arms around his middle, holding him tight. “You don’t get to check out on me, Dylan. We are going to get through this together, no matter what. You, me, and Ash. You’re not alone anymore. We are not alone anymore, and I don’t want you to feel like you have to carry all of this on your shoulders. Share things with us. Tell us what’s bothering you. We’re going to take this one step at a time, but don’t shut us out.”
He shuddered underneath my hands, and as I started rubbing small circles on his back, his arms came around me as well, and he laid his head on top of mine.
“I’ll try,” he murmured, placing a kiss on top of my head. “I’ll try to be better. For you.”
“Remember, one step at the time. We will get through this, and we will have a wonderful life. All three of us. They won’t take this away from us. They can’t.”
He squeezed me tight just as the sound of a car pulling in and the horn honking went through the house.
“He’s here,” Dylan whispered.
“Pack your things, Dy. You’re coming with us. I don’t care about the consequences.”
He was about to say something else, but I wasn’t having it. We had a long way to go, but this was a start.
“Go and open the door for our boy,” I murmured to him. “I still need to take a shower.”
