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The corner of the bed sank under his weight. I pulled my knees up and wrapped my free arm around them.
“What are you doing, Kelly?” The words were quiet, gentle, and felt like a chokehold on my throat. “You’ve got a family who loves and cares about you, that wants nothing but the best for you. And you’re, what? Staying out to all hours of the night? Going to bars and clubs, making poor life choices? What are you doing? Where are you living? How are you paying for your food? Your basic necessities?”
“I get by.” It barely made it across my lips, caught in the tightness his plea caused in the back of my throat.
Lee shifted again, and my attention snapped back to him as I swung my head in his direction. He was a monster of a man, taking up too much space on a bed that felt far too small, in a room—a house, a life—that felt far too inadequate to hold him.
“Why do you care about what I do?”
The skin at the corners of his eyes twitched before his mouth opened, but no words came out. He deflated before my eyes—face going slack, his broad shoulders slumping like someone let the air out of him.
“Why do I care?” he finally managed with a shake of his head. His chin dipped slightly, and his eyes dropped to the bed at my feet. Then they rose, until I was sure he was looking at my ankle, to the patch of skin that was a different color than the rest.
Pulling my legs tighter to my chest, I crossed my ankles, then wrapped my hand around one and held it tight.
Lee’s gaze lifted to mine, and my skin tingled as sweat began to form. Inside of me, there was a raging desire to lie, but I didn’t know about what.
“Can’t answer that,” he finally said, his voice as rough as gravel.
“Why not?”
He dragged a hand down his face, and when he turned his emerald green eyes to the far side of the room, the whites looked less white than red. “’Cause I’m tired. I’m fuckin’ tired. Spent six hours searching for you after one of the longest fuckin’ days of my life, and I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Hurt me?” Every muscle in my body tensed. “What do you mean, hurt me?”
His eyes drooped shut in a blink so long, I wasn’t sure he’d bother opening them. “Your parents miss you. Your best friend misses you.”
“I don’t have a best friend.”
“Jen fuckin’ misses you!”
“She’s not my friend! She may have been before—” I choked, unable to finish.
“Before?” How was it possible that a man so big could look so small? And how did that make me feel smaller than a mouse? “You think she doesn’t still love you? You think she doesn’t talk about you every day? Wish you were okay? Ask me every fuckin’ time she sees me if I’ve heard from you? If you’re safe? You think—”
His eyes slammed shut at the same time he slapped his own hand over his mouth. For that long moment, my breath froze in my chest, unable to move in or out. It wasn’t until he opened his eyes once more, until those bright emeralds focused on me, that the air in my lungs moved.
It was like he sucked the oxygen right out of the air.
Without a word, Lee stood from where he’d perched his big body. He rounded the bed and snagged his phone off the table on his side. After poking at the screen, he held it to his ear, the entire time not bothering to look at me.
“Yeah, she’s here. Yeah. Okay.”
With that, he held the phone out to me. A wave of nausea rolled through me the second I saw the name on the screen, and I jerked away, scrambled off the bed, only to be stopped in my place by the metal handcuff holding me in place.
Lee’s gaze swept my face, my body pulling at its chain, my hair that billowed around me like fire swept up in a hurricane. His lips moved as he swiped his tongue across his teeth. Then it was him moving. He rounded the bed, and my heart raced. I scrambled away from him, climbing right back into the spot where I started.
“Talk to them,” he said, his demand dampened only by the exhaustion that was so clear in his tone.
My hand shook as I reached for his phone. My body shivered as our skin touched, that split second of contact enough to make my heart thud out an unsteady beat. I nearly dropped his cell as he released it into my hand, and both of us fumbled, as I was torn between jerking away and holding on. As I desperately craved a kind touch at the same time my entire body rebelled against the mere thought of being this close.
Being close.
Being touched.
Having his big, warm hands cradling mine as I tried to breathe, my hands caught between his.
He released me slowly, ensuring I held onto his infernal device. It wasn’t until I lifted the damn thing to my ear that he bothered pulling his hands back, pulling his arms to his sides.
