“I know. It’s just—”
“I’m fine—honestly. Your damsel is not in distress today.”
Michael looked at me, a glint in his eye. “Damsel?”
I chuckled, thinking how much Michael loved to dominate everything. To be in control. He always looked at me differently when I was vulnerable. Not that he liked seeing me in distress or anything. I just got the feeling he kind of liked women who needed to be taken care of.
“Yes, Michael. Damsel. I think I’ll be okay.” I walked over and pulled him into my arms. “Thank you for everything. Words can’t describe how much I appreciate you staying with me while I was in the hospital.”
I breathed in his sweet scent and sighed. I didn’t know what it was that made me pull towards it so badly.
“You needed me, Cassie. I was never going to leave you.”
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I nodded into the crook of his neck. The conversation we needed to have needed to happen quickly. I just didn’t know how I was going to explain myself without coming off all jumpy and nervous. I was nervous as hell about what his reaction would be when I told him. What he would say once I revealed how I truly felt. The decision I made on that fateful night.
“I’m starving,” I said, trying to lighten the mood a little. “I could eat a horse.”
Michael pulled away and smiled. “I can’t get you a horse, but I can certainly get you the best pizza you’ve ever tasted. How does that sound?”
I couldn’t help but lick my lips. Just thinking about that first bite of hot pizza had me salivating.
Michael stared at my lips as I licked them. I could see a certain hunger in his eyes and I didn’t think it was because of the thought of pizza.
With the nerves kicking in, I cleared my throat and stepped away. “It sounds heavenly, Michael.”
He just smiled, grabbed his helmet, and pulled open the door. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I nodded and watched as he shut the door with a muffled thud. It was then that I sank down onto the sofa, pulled a cushion to my face, and balled my eyes out.
Chapter 3
Stephen
I’d be damned if I thought I could come back here and everything would be okay. I gave Cassie what she wanted, so why was it that I still felt her calling out to me? Why was it I yearned for her more than I ever had in my entire lifetime? It was painful before, but it was unbearable this time. I chalk it up to the thought that maybe it was just me who couldn’t get over her. I was clinging to her memory as hard as a child held onto their mother when they were frightened. I couldn’t let her go.
I didn’t want to let her go.
I tried my hardest to give her the one thing I knew she really wanted—Michael. I knew I was too late, but I couldn’t help wondering what it was she wanted to talk to me about. I could hear the apprehension and excitement in her voice when she phoned me before everything happened with Kali.
Or should I call her Elizabeth? Oh, how fucked up that was. I couldn’t help thinking back to that time when I betrayed my brother. How much I wanted them to know. How much I wanted Cassie to know. I will never forget the events that unfolded on that fateful day many moons ago. Michael and Cassie didn’t know the half of it. I wish I could tell them, but I had gotten myself in way too deep. Despite what they thought, I did what I did to protect someone. Someone I loved and cared for deeply.
I shivered slightly at the thought they would never know. I kept this secret from them for so long now, it really didn’t make a difference…especially now that I lost Cassie.
My god, I missed her. I missed her long, wavy brown locks brushing against her face as she slept. I missed the way she used to moan my name in her sleep. Geez, how hard I would get at the sound of it. I wanted to wake her and pull her to me, kiss her, make love to her. Cassie never knew of my desire for her. I craved for her day and night. Under the cover of darkness, I used to follow her to make sure she was safe. She was the air I breathed, my unspoken words—my everything.
I can’t help but wonder what she was doing right now. I knew I could be there for her if she wanted me to be. All she would have to do was call my name and I would be there in spirit. I could feel her pain, and it killed me to know she was suffering.
Why is she suffering? What could she possibly be in pain over now?
God, I’m such a dick. She not only lost the best friend she had known her whole life, she found out she was just using her the whole time. Of course she would be in pain. Of course she would be suffering. I just hoped Michael would be there to comfort and protect her.
He would, of course. Michael loved to protect. It had been hard-wired into him ever since he was a little boy. Always wanting to salvage, always wanting to take charge and shield the ones he loved.