Chapter 130: Penny
The shower water stalds my skin, but it’s not enough.
Net enough to scrub off the beal he let behind. Not enough to slow my taring h
theart or deady t
y the way my hands wat stop trembling
i lean my forehead against the foggy tile wall, steam curling atmund me like smoke, chest
What is wrong with me?
He crouched in front of me like I was prey, like I was something he could devour in one breath and I–I could barely look awry. I couldn’t breathe think.
Before he liked me–even tolerated me–be still made my spine light up like a fase. Now that he’s here, now that he’s close on purpose, that he may even sei me as a hiend… It’s like trying to hold back a wildfire with a glass of water.
I can’t feel this way about him. I omt.
Tyler is-
Tyler is not this.
I step out of the shower, dry, off quickly, and pull on my softest black leggings and a hoodie. My hair is damp against my neck in a loose braid. I barely glance at myself in the mirror before leaving the bathroom.
When I came out, he’s sitting on his bed, forearms resting on his knees, fingers tangled loosely together. The muscles in his back flex through the black cotton of his shirt, His jaw is set. But when he looks up and sees me, something shifts. Something I can’t name.
on my bed. My heartbeat won’t slow
“Asher?”
He turns his head, eyes meeting mine. “Yeah?“”
“What’s the real reason you didn’t want me to see you shirtless earlier?”
He doesn’t answer right away. Doesn’t look away either.
I panic. Fill the silence the way I always do–with rambling.
mean—everyone has insecurities. I wasn’t trying to make fun of you. It’s just… you don’t look like someone who would feel that way. You kind of look like a Greek god, if we’re all being honest and…”
I stop myself because he buffs a laugh and shakes his head that smirk tugging at one corner of his mouth. “I’m not insecure about my body.”
My mouth open. Closes.
Yeah. That tracks. Have you seen yourself?
He doesn’t answer.
Instead.
he says, “Come here.”
My stomach lips
I hesitate, but has gate is readable. Nex teasing. Not guarded, either just focused. Like I’m the only thing
ng that matters right now.
1/3
Chapter 130: Penny
I get up and sit next to him on the bed, close but not touching. His sent hits me all over again–redar and omething darker, met impossible to describe
Beturns, and when our knees brush, I nearly forget how to breathe.
Then his hand slides onto my thigh -just a little pressure, like a tether–and he says, “You remember that one?”
He’s pointing in the long scar slashing across his forearm. The one I see every time be mount.
The one that loves in the back of
He doesn’t move. “Touch it.”
ch it
My throat tightens, But I reach out slowly, gently,
my fingertip along the line. It’s warm under my touch. Raised and month and terribly on. It’s
long, too. And I can’t help thinking about how much it must’ve burt,
His grip on my thigh tightens–just for a beat. A allent reaction. A warning? A pulse?
I’m breathing too hard. I can feel it. So can he
“This is nothing,” he says quietly. “Child’s play compared to the rest of me.”
Something in my chest cracks. I don’t mean to, but a tear slips out.
He brushes it away with his thumb, Slow, Soft, Reverent.
And then he says, “That’s why I didn’t want you to see.”
My heart twists in my chest.
“I wouldn’t have minded,” I whisper.
He gives a half laugh, bitter at the edges. “There’s no point in doing that to you
(silence, blinking quickly.
Then I ask, “Was it… the same incident that burt Booster?”
He stills. His eyes don’t move from mine. “Yeah.”
My voice is smaller. “Did you get hurt the way he did?”
A pause. Then “Rooster got burned. Fourth degree.”
I blink again. “I didn’t know there was a fourth degree.”
He nods once. “It’s when it burns through the skin, muscle, even bone sometimes. That’s why he’s lucky to have his aim”
I feel cold suddenly, despite the hoodie. My fingers twitch in my lap.
My voice cracks. “Yours weren’t burns?”
He shakes his head slowly. “No.”
My chest aches. I don’t want to push him, but I want to know. I want to know everything. What happened. What it did to him. Why he wakes up in the night Icathing like he’s drowning
Chapter 130: Penny
“I talked to Anna,” I say quietly, “The day I fell. I saw her and, well, tim talked about your
“She didn’t tell me anything. She didn’t tell me what happened, host…” I exhale. “She told me how many of per came hack →
He nods, and his auns move–pulling me suddenly, gently, into his lap. One hand on my waist, the other on my shoulder. Holding me rose, Like he can feel the ache incide me and needs to fix it with his own hands,
I don’t resist.
I melt into him
“I guess you’re not the one that wasn’t hurt.
He doesn’t speak. Just shakes his head.
I ask, “Did you have the worst ingest
His voice is soft. “Out of the four that lived, yeah
The word lands heavy in my chest. Worst than a fourth degree bum?
Tears blut my vision.
“Why are you crying?” he whispers against my temple.
I press my
y face into his shoulder, my voice muffled. “Because what if you go back and you don’t make it out?”
He pulls me closer. So Light I can
feel his heartbeat.
“That’s the job, princess.”
I sniffle. “Well… your job sucks.”
He chuckles low in his chest. The sound vibrates through me. Calms me and unravels me at the same tim
“Yeah,” he says, voire rough. “It really does.”
I stay right there, curled in his lap, the feel of him solid beneath me, wrapped in the warmth of something that feels like it could barn the world down
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