Page 95 of Hidden Scars

Chapter Eighteen

Now

“Jesus, Em! Wake up, baby,” Nix calls to me and my eyes pop open.

I breathe a sigh of relief as I take in the familiar walls of my apartment. That dream was so real.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” he asks, cradling my face in his hands and searching my eyes.

I nod and force a smile to my face. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

He eyes me warily. “You wanna talk about it?” I just shrug my shoulders. He snuggles up to me and lies back down. I run my finger along the intricate lines of the tattoos on his arm.

“I caught Ryan cheating on me once. Well, actually Addy did.”

His hold around me tightens. “Yeah, you told me before that he cheated on you.”

I nod again. “When I confronted him and told him that I was leaving, he locked me up in the guest bedroom overnight. He said I needed to calm down.”

“What do you mean he locked you up?” The tension in his body grows.

“He had installed a lock on the outside of the door so he could lock me in. And he did something to the window so it wouldn’t open anymore. I was trapped in there until he decided to let me out.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he growls through clenched teeth. “He planned to lock you up?”

“I dunno. I have no idea what he was planning to do with that room before that night.” He just nods. “The next morning, he let me out and asked if I had calmed down yet. I told him to go screw himself so he locked me back up until he came home from work.”

“Holy fuck, Emma.” He jumps out of bed and begins pacing next to the bed, running a hand through his hair. His body is absolutely rigid, his muscles bulging from the stress.

“Do you want me to stop?”

His eyes shoot to me. They instantly soften and he crawls back into the bed. He lays his hand on my face and draws me closer, claiming my lips.

When he pulls away, he whispers, “I love you.” I just nod. He kisses my forehead and lets me cuddle back into him. “Okay, keep going.”

“When he came home from work, he let me out again and asked if I had calmed down. I was so hungry and thirsty that I told him I was sorry so he let me out.”

“God, Emma. The things he did to you.” His voice cracks. I look up at him and grab his face between my hands.

“It’s okay. I’m okay.”

“You are one of the sweetest people I know, Emma, and he used that against you. And somehow, you still blame yourself.”

“I was stupid, Nix.”

“No, you weren’t.”

“Fine. I was naïve then.”

“You got played, baby. It happens to the best of us.”

I lean in quickly and kiss him again. “You always see the best in me, Nix.”

He smiles and wraps his arms around me.

“That’s ‘cause there isn’t a single piece of bad in you, Em.”

I scoff and shake my head. He smiles against my skin as he kisses my cheek. I relax into him. We fall into a comfortable silence, just lying here in bed. After a while, my fingers begin to dance across his washboard abs, dipping lower and lower on each pass.