Page 97 of Compulsion
“Don’t youeverhurt something unless it hurts you first.Do you understand me?Not.Ever.”
But those heavy, deep, hard footsteps were in his room, and his mother stopped talking.She grabbed the butterfly and swept it into his garbage can.
Too late, though.Becausehe’dheard her.
Dark, rumbling laughter.“That’s some bullshit advice.Always strike first.Always attack first.That’s how you show the world just how strong you are.”
And his head turned once more, but this time, it was so that he could look toward the faded bedroom door and see?—
Atlas suckedin a breath as he woke up.
His eyes flew open, and he stared into the darkness.He was far too conscious of the fast pounding of his heart.
And of the soft hand that pressed over his heart.
Lily.
She didn’t stir.He pulled in another breath.Exhaled.Slow.Deep.Again and again.
He didn’t keep trophies.He didn’t attack first.
“It’s all right,” Lily’s soft voice.And he realized that she had woken up.“Nightmares can’t hurt us.”
They couldn’t.Reality could.
His hand slid over her naked back.Stroked her soft, silken skin.“Sorry I woke you.”
“Don’t be.”She kissed his neck.“I can always go to sleep again.”
She’d been afraid for him to sleep with her.Afraid she’d disturb him.Instead, she was the one who gave him comfort in the dark.
He swallowed, twice.
And when she fell asleep again, he kept staring into the darkness.
ChapterTwenty-One
An insistent ringing woke her.
Lily cracked open one eye, glaring at the bedside clock, but when she saw those glowing digits—What?She sat upright fast.
The ringing came again.Not a ringtone she recognized—because it’s a new phone.That’s your new phone ringing on the nightstand.Her hand flew out to grab the phone.She swiped her finger over the screen and put the phone to her ear.“Hello?”She’d only called one person with that phone.So only one person should be callingheron it since no one else—other than Atlas—would have the number.
Atlas.
She automatically looked over her shoulder.He sat on the edge of the bed, his broad back to her.
“Lily!”Sloane’s frantic voice in her ear.
But Lily frowned at Atlas.He was…reading something?Her head craned.What was he reading?
“Lily, it’s on the news!I’m stuck in the New Orleans airport, andit’s on the news!”
Lily rose from the bed.She pulled a sheet with her, wrapping it around her body, and she crept around the edge of the bed to get a better view of Atlas.
He was wearing jeans.When had he gone to put on jeans?And…
That was her diary in his hands.Her open diary.
