Page 58 of Unmarked Magic

“Sorry, it’s a small mattress.”

At that moment, the candle flickered, dying seconds later. The cabin plunged into a darkness so dense I swore the moon had deserted its post. I could barely make her out right in front of me.

Her tight breath echoed in the hut. “It’s really dark.”

She was afraid of the dark.

Don’t touch her.

Another shaky breath left her.

Fuck it.

I reached for her, wrapping my arm around her middle and pulling her into me. I expected her to object, but she melted in my arms.

“It’s okay. I’ve got you.” Darkness swallowed my words, but they hit the way I wanted. I needed her to know she was safe in my arms.

We lay there in silence, but the night awoke around us, wrapping us in its nocturnal blanket. The rhythmic swell of my hand told me her breathing had steadied, but I couldn’t be sure if she was asleep or not. I lay there, breathing her in. I didn’t understand how she had hit me so hard, or when. But she had. So fucking hard. I hated I couldn’t be what she needed. What she deserved.

My thoughts spiraled from there, and I had to force myself to pull my shit together. Just go to sleep, I told myself.

Impossible.

Her whisper broke through the silence. “You were about to leave me. Again. It’s embarrassing.”

Her words slammed straight into my gut. Fuck.

“I was.” It seemed better to own it than to admit why. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t understand why you keep running.”

I found her arm in the dark, sliding mine over it until my thumb brushed across her hand. I had to give her something. I couldn’t tell her everything, but I had to at least be honest about us. “The way you make me feel scares me,” I whispered. A wad of air lodged in my throat, waiting for her response.

“I scare you?”

I stumbled over my words. “Yeah, I, sorry, I’m not good at this.”

“This?”

“Feeling. Feelings. I’ve never felt so….”

My finger traced her skin in soft, barely-there lines, my hips screaming to close the distance between us, but I didn’t. “I don’t know what this is. It’s intense.”

“Reid,” she whispered, breathy but cautious.

“Yeah?”

“I feel it, too.”

Those four words nearly broke me.

I knew she felt something, but hearing her say the words made it real. It also caused a predatory feeling to surface from deep within me. Like I needed to protect her even more. How could life deal me something so real but not allow me to have it? Let me hold it in my arms? I decided then it was best to end the night with words of comfort for once.

“Good night, Red,” I murmured into her hair.

She adjusted herself one last time before her whisper spread through the hut. “Goodnight.” She drifted off not long after.

Sleep never came for me.