Page 79 of Ricochet
“Get on the motherfucking bed, Maya.” I threw her frail body on the bed, and she landed on her back, her legs spread. “That’s good.”
“Kieran, no!”
“I said,” I gripped her jaw in my hand, pressing on the bones there, “to shut the fuck up. Didn’t I?”
One lone tear rolled down her cheek, and then another one, and another one, and another one, until her body started shaking with the strength of her sobs.
Just turn it all off, Kieran. Turn the guilt off, push through this and you will be okay.
“Stop crying, for fuck’s sake. It won’t help you.”
“Please,” she mumbled between her pressed lips. “Please, Kieran. I will disappear.”
“Too late, Maya.”
“Please.” She tried pushing herself up, but I pushed her down, holding her by her throat. “Please don’t do this to me, Kieran. Think about Ophelia, think about what you’re going to do.”
“Ophelia?”
Her eyes were blue. So, so blue, like the Mediterranean Sea in the middle of July.
Blue.
Ocean.
Ophelia.
“Ophelia,” I choked out, and it wasn’t Maya I was seeing in front of me. “Ophelia, you came back.”
Her smile was blinding, but the watery trail left from her tears made me feel like the biggest asshole on the entire planet.
“I am sorry,” I kissed her cheek. “I am so sorry, baby girl. I promise I will make everything better.”
“Kieran,” she sobbed. Why was she sobbing? “Please…”
“I will make you feel good, Phee. I promise.”
She lost so much weight in the past couple of days. As I pulled her shirt up, revealing the soft swell of her breasts, I could see her ribs protruding, her stomach sinking in.
“You need to eat, baby. You need to eat, otherwise you’ll get sick, and I don’t want you to be sick.”
I would make her feel better. I would.
This was my chance to make everything better, this was what I was asking for. I unbuttoned my pants, letting them drop to the floor, and started doing the same to the shorts she was wearing. Why was she wearing shorts? It was cold outside, she could get sick.
“I am sorry, baby.”
I started kissing her neck, as I pulled the shorts from her hips, dropping them to the floor, next to the bed. Shivers erupted over her skin, and I kissed my way from her collarbone to the valley between her breasts, dropping one hand in her panties.
“We will be happy, Phee. I will make you so happy, so, so happy. You’ll see.”
“Kieran, please.”
“Shh, baby girl. Shhh.”
My lips locked on hers, urging her to open up, but she wasn’t returning my kiss.
“Let me go, Kieran!”
