Page 240 of Tempting Venom
Maybe he would’ve confessed about what happened to him that causes any form of intimacy outside of sex to make him as rigid as a board.
I have an idea, but I’ve refused to speculate or think about it.
But perhaps I should’ve. Maybe I needed to push him more out of his comfort zone.
Perhaps I had to just…be there. At all times.
I was there today, but I was busy being jealous of his closeness with Violet to act in time.
And now, he’s in surgery, fighting for his life because I couldn’t protect him.
The waiting room hums like a broken light—too bright, too white—smelling of antiseptic I never loathed until this moment.
Jude is pacing a path into the linoleum. Kane stands withhis arms crossed, his back to the wall like he’s holding it up by sheer will. Lawrence is the only one sitting, perfectly composed in one of the ugly blue chairs, his elbows on his knees, his fingers laced, his knuckles white. His face is blank.
I stay by the doorway. Not in. Not out.
My thumb taps against my middle finger in a slow, controlled rhythm.
One, two, three.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Start again.
Prestonwillget out of this.
I’ll take him and go.
Somewhere else.Anywhereelse.
Away from guns and emotionally stunted fathers.
He gets out. I take him. We leave.
I repeat it until the words stop sounding like a wish and start feeling like a plan.
Jude’s gaze cuts to me as he stops in front of me, his arm wrapped in a bandage that’s soaked through.
No idea how it happened, couldn’t have fucking cared less as I was holding Preston in my arms, whispering that he’d be okay, that I’d be here, begging him not to go.
The only reason I released him when Kane pulled me away was so the medics could take his cold, unconscious body to the ambulance.
“And why the fuck are you here?” Jude snaps in my face.
I don’t look at him. Don’t move.
Willnotmove.
Because Preston is on the other side of that door with his chest cut open and his heart still fighting, and I am done leaving him alone with people who don’t know how to fucking protect him.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“I asked you a question,” Jude grinds out.
“Cut it out.” Kane pushes off the wall, watching me closely as he paces. No idea what he did or didn’t see in the park. I don’t even care.
“I want you gone,” Jude says.
