Page 478 of Coal Hearts

So many things surged through me.

Needs, fears, desires, trepidations.

I laughed because I didn’t want such feelings.

I giggled because my feelings were absurd, and everything about this was crazy.

He cut you.

Stole you.

He’s hurting...

I squeezed his quad. “It’s okay...”

He stiffened and sucked in a tattered breath.

The tension in his leg turned to granite.

I snickered as I squeezed him again. “You’re made of stone.” I poked at his rock-hard stomach. Cold. Unyielding. “Actually, I think you’re an iceberg.”

His eyes remained locked on mine, cataloguing my every move. Yet he still didn’t speak.

An image of the Titanic floated into my head. I was the Titanic. I crashed bow first into the iceberg that was Henri. I sank into crystal-blue water where penguins swam and polar bears dived and cute fur seals—

Stop it.

Swallowing hard, I blinked past glittering icicles and refocused.

The fantastical images in my head left, but the soft candyfloss feeling remained.

I like this feeling.

Henri needs some.

It’ll help...

“Here.” I threaded my fingers through his on the tub of cream. “I don’t like that you’re unhappy.”

He shot to his feet. “Merde, you really don’t handle your drugs well.”

Finally...he speaks.

I smiled and nodded.

That was the key.

The only way he could come back from the shadows in his eyes.

“Come back.” I opened my arms. “Talk to me. You’re usually so chatty.”

His eyebrows swooped up; a flush covered his neck.

Swallowing hard, he scooped some goo from the tub and gingerly sat beside me. “Remove your towel.”

I shivered.

Couldn’t help it.