Page 140 of Finding Noah

“I know,” I sympathized, glancing over my shoulder and back into the room.

And then I envisioned our bed taking up the space. Her clothes in the closet, my dresser against the wall. I thought about the moon’s beams, spearing through the windowpane to lay over our forms as we made love in the darkness, a kid or two asleep down the hall.

I imagined us laying our hands all over this house, adding our personal touches beside the existing ones we already loved. I imagined her dad walking over for barbecues, her little sisters hanging out in the backyard with my little brother while Dad and I shot the shit in the detached garage. I imagined inviting Jay over to play video games in the living room. I imagined walking through the door to find Meg on the couch, our baby in her arms, and I had a hard time believing anywhere else could make me feel so much like … home.

My eyes went to the window once more, and I looked beyond the trees and past the broken fence, and asked, “Is that my parents’ house?”

“Oh my God,” Meg said, laughing a bit. “It is.”

I’d share a fence with Dad. I could hop the fence and see him whenever I wanted.

And then I realized that Meg had been right all along, since the very beginning of this hunt for a house.

I didn’t want to be anywhere else.

“Maybe we can negotiate,” I finally said, nodding.

Meg turned to look up at me, a smile spreading across her face to reach her eyes, bringing the blue to life and making them sparkle like the ring on her finger.

“Are you serious?” she asked, wrapping her arms around my waist.

“It’s going to be the biggest pain in my ass,” I said, holding her as tightly as she held me. “But I want to live in this house.”

“I want to raise our kids here,” she said, tipping her head back.

I turned from the view of the yard to drift my gaze from her eyes to her lips. “Hey, if we’re really quick and really, really quiet, I bet we could try to make one right now …”

“Connie would kill us,” Meg said, though her eyes glittered with mischief.

I dipped my head, closing the distance between her mouth and mine, in a room that somehow already felt like ours, as I whispered, “I dare her to try.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

REVELATIONS

The blow to my gut interrupted the sweet reverie of memories from a place so far away from where I was now. A gasping cough erupted from somewhere within me, and if I'd had anything in my stomach to expel, I would've retched all over myself and the enraged man standing above me.

“You pay attention to me when I'm in here!” he screamed into my face, his spittle landing on my cheeks and lips.

“Dude,” I wheezed, turning away as best as I could. “Invest the few bucks and get a toothbrush.”

He grasped my chin in his grip, wrenching my face toward him again. “What did you say?!”

“Seriously, Benny, your breath reeks.”

“You will shut your fuckin' mouth before I stuff something in it,” he threatened through a sneer. “And I promise you, you won't like it.”

“Oh, because I've just loved our time together so far, right?”

Benjamin tipped his head, challenge blazing in his wicked gaze. “Boy, you're askin' for it, huh? You want my cock in your mouth? You gonna swallow for me?”

“You put your dick in my mouth, Benny, and I swear to God, that'll be the last thing you do before I bite it off.”

He must've sensed that I meant it because he took a step back. Standing over me at his full height now. It made him feel powerful, to look at me like this. Naked and helpless. Bound and bruised and bleeding.

“I gotta go,” he announced abruptly, turning toward the door.

It was pathetic how I loathed the time he spent in my cell, how often I begged the universe to let me fall asleep and never wake up, only to wish he'd stay longer. He gave me nothing but pain and agony and a humiliation I barely recognized anymore, but, oh God, I hated to be alone in the perpetual darkness, never knowing when someone—either him or the man in black—would return.