Page 36 of Look My Way (Bloody Desires #1)

“Never. Ask me whatever you want and I’ll tell you the truth.”

“No matter what it is?”

“No matter what.” He nods, eyes burrowing into mine.

“Did you hide my curtains in the shed?” I have my suspicions but want to hear it anyway.

“Yes.”

“Did you follow me before I saved you at the diner?”

“No. I hadn’t found you yet.”

My chest rises and falls at a rapid pace. “Did you purposely get a job at my house?”

“No. That was by chance.”

I suck in a breath. “Did you follow me home from the diner?” I blow out a puff of air, lips shaking.

“Yes. I did.”

“We hadn’t discussed that ahead of time either, but you did it.”

“I know.” His bottom lip tucks under his top lip. “I needed to be near you. To know you. I know it wasn’t right, but there’s been something broken in me for a long time and I don’t always choose the right path, but I’ll try to learn for you. At least when it has to do with you. Only for you.”

“I don’t know what any of that means.” I pull further away, taking the sheet with me. “Did you do something to me last night or not?”

“No. It was your cop boyfriend. I saw him mess with your pill bottle through the window.”

“Daniel?” My voice goes higher.

“Yes. Daniel. He switched out some of your pills for a high dose of Xanax, but I removed them all. I know how much you need those meds. You count them religiously.”

“Daniel wouldn’t do that. Why would he do that?” I sound winded, holding a hand to my chest, and an ache spreads inside me, ripping me open down the center. If it’s true, then he really is trying to make me out to be crazy.

“I don’t know. Probably the same reason he’s been lying to you about your family and where he goes when he says he’s going home.”

“What?” My voice echoes around me, head spinning so fast I grip onto the headboard behind me. “What are you talking about? Where else would he go? And how do I know you’re even telling the truth about my sister?”

“Call her. She’ll tell you.”

I take the paper from his hand, skin prickling as I recall seeing her name last night in bold letters. Daniel wouldn’t do something so awful, would he? Lie about my family and drug me? Do I even want to know the answer?

I look up at Zavier and he folds my fingers around the piece of paper, motioning toward my phone on the nightstand. “Go on. I’ll make us some breakfast while you do. Take as long as you need and meet me in the kitchen when you’re ready.”

Swallowing the thickness in my throat, I nod, and he releases his hand from mine. He sweeps at my hair, tucking strands behind my ear while smiling a little. “You can do this, carino. It’s the only way you’ll find out what you’re wanting to know.”

The bed lifts as he steps onto the floor. Bending down, he grabs his underwear and heads for the kitchen. His back and ass muscles flex with each step. He’s like a damn work of art. The kind you want displayed everywhere.

The cheeky bastard knows damn well I’m checking him out too, walking slower than necessary like he’s on some damn catwalk. If I don’t avert my gaze and focus on what I’m supposed to be doing soon, I’ll have to grab a towel from the bathroom to soak the drool from my face.

I pull my eyes away from the masterpiece strutting down the hallway, as he sings a song I swear I’ve heard recently.

Shaking it off, I reach for my phone, and with shaky fingers, I type out the number.

Seconds turn to minutes as I stay frozen, fingers hovering over the green button.

Air pulls from my lungs as I touch it, pressing on it a long time after it starts ringing.

“Hello?”

My heart jumps in my throat. Tabitha. I’d recognize her voice anywhere. Ss soft and calm.

“Hi,” I say, feeling each word being forced out of my mouth as I tangle my fingers in the sheets.

“Liam?” Sadness wrapped in excitement fill her tone.

“Tabby,” I whisper, stomach flipping and knotting all at once.

“Is it really you?” It sounds as if a rope is squeezing tight around her words as she says them.

“It’s me. I’m sorry I haven’t called. I didn’t . . .” My words tangle.

“Daniel.” She blows out a breath. “He didn’t let you, did he?”

“He hid your number from me . . . Told me it was a spam caller and blocked it with my permission. It was my mistake. I should have questioned it more and looked myself. I didn’t realize you got a new number.”

“It’s not your fault, Liam. It’s that man you call a fiancé. He’s gotten into your head. I’ve seen him do it before, change your mind about something you were so sure about with a snap of his fingers.” She takes a breath. “Are you okay? Are you safe?”

“I’m fine.” I look toward the hallway Zavier was standing in only minutes ago. “At least, I am now. I think Daniel has been drugging me.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me. I never liked the guy. He kept telling us to stay away and that we were making you sicker with all the stress.”

What else has he said to others who I assumed left me of their own accord? “He lied. I’d never say that. I think I was getting sicker because of him. I miss you guys. So much.” My heart squeezes.

“Come home. We’d love to see you. Ma hasn’t stopped asking, and dad sits by the phone every evening as if waiting for your call.”

“I want to but—”

“Is he there? Will he not let you? If I need to come get you, I will.”

“No . . . he isn’t here. I don’t think I’ll let him in here ever again.”

“Good. Then come see us this weekend. It’s your nephew’s birthday party. You can stay with us.”

“It’s kind of hard for me to drive that far on my own. Or, well, I’m kind of nervous doing it since I haven’t in so long. Is it okay if I bring a friend with me?”

“Someone other than Daniel?”

“Yes,” I say, looking down at my twisting fingers.

“Does he know about this secret friend of yours?” Her voice clips.

“What makes you think he’s a secret?”

“He,” she says, putting emphasis on each letter. “I’m going to go with no. How did you manage that?”

“His name is Zavier, and we met when I pushed him out of the way of a car. And Daniel’s just been occupied with other things.”

“Zavier.” She hums. “Ah, the man who came to the shop. If he’s the one we have to thank for bringing you back to us, then we’d love to have him. He’s very cute too.” She chuckles.

That’s an understatement and she knows it. “Yeah, he gave me your number and well . . .” My throat tightens as I close and open my mouth.

“You like him.”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

She laughs again. “Well, he already sounds better than your last choice, so I’m all for it. When should we expect you both?”

“Tomorrow evening maybe? I’ll have to check with him first, though.”

“Tomorrow works for me. Let me know either way. I can’t wait to hug my baby brother again.”

Laughter falls from my lips and my heart jumps. “I can’t wait either. Love you, Tabby.”

“I love you too. We all do, and nothing Daniel said about us seeing you as a burden was ever true.”

“I know. See you soon.”

We both hang up at the same time, and when I glance at the mirror again, I’m smiling for a reason other than Zavier.

I’m going to see my family again. They never wanted me out of their lives.

Daniel has been twisting everything. Zavier was right about my sister, and about Daniel tearing me away from my family.

It means he’s probably right about the pills too.

The pills.

Tossing the covers off me, I rush to the bathroom and take down the bottle from the medicine cabinet.

There are only ten when I count. I’m lower than I thought.

He must have replaced so many of them with something else, this whole time causing me to get sicker by tricking me into taking my medicine incorrectly.

How could he do something like this? I can’t believe I thought what we had was love.

Setting the pills back in the cabinet, I try to calm myself down by taking deep breaths. I lean over the sink, holding in a breath until the count of five before releasing it.

Footsteps trail behind me and warm arms wrap around my shoulders. “It’s okay, carino. I’m here, my sweet boy. I’m right here.” Zavier presses a kiss to my cheek, and I rub my face over his, going boneless in his hold as I melt into his warmth.

“You’re okay. It’s going to be okay.”

Nodding, I slowly turn around and place a hand to his cheek. He lays his hand over mine, bringing his warm lips closer until we’re sealed together. His tongue forces my mouth open, tangling with mine, and I sink against him and spread my lips wider to let him in more.

We latch onto each other harder, like we’re both starved for each other’s taste, not pulling away until we are both breathless. Panting against my lips, his eyes pierce into mine. “You okay?”

“Much better.” I smile. “I have a question for you, though.” My nerves get the better of me, twisting like winding roads in my stomach and threatening to crash.

“Yeah? What’s that? If it’s whether I put tuna in the waffle batter, the answer is no.”

I sputter a laugh, shaking my head. “Will you go see my family with me? Tabitha invited me to come home this weekend for my nephew’s birthday, and I wanted to leave tomorrow, but if you can’t—”

“Yes.” He holds my face in both of his palms, smiling wider. “I’ll leave here with you whenever you want.”

My stomach swirls and the butterflies run rampant. “Then we can leave in the afternoon. I don’t know if you need to go home and come back—”

“You can come stay at my place. Only if you want to.”

“Your place?”

“Yeah. You were supposed to come over for movie night anyway, remember?”

My heart beats loudly in my ears. “Yeah. Yeah, I do now.” I peck his lips, and he presses his to the corner of my mouth, then my nose and forehead. I laugh as he comes for each of my eyes and cheeks.

“Let’s go eat and we can discuss the rest of our plans at the table.”

“Okay.” I wrap my fingers in his and we walk hand in hand into the kitchen.

He stops as soon as we reach the table, letting me go as I lower myself into one of the chairs.

Scooting closer to the table, I smile at how good he looks in my kitchen.

He’s walking around like he’s always been here.

Nothing at all seems out of place right now, when before he came along my life seemed distorted.

He swings his hips, singing as he sets our plates down. Parking himself in the chair next to me, he reaches for a pitcher and fills each of our glasses with orange juice.

I wiggle in my chair, lifting one leg up as my body quickly reminds me of last night and this morning’s activities.

“You okay?” His brows fold over. “Did I hurt you?”

“Maybe a little, but it’s a good kind of hurt. I can handle it, remember?”

“Yes you can.”

I take my first bite of food, lifting my face as I hum around the sweet fluffiness melting in my mouth. My eyes are met with the recipe box on the windowsill, and I lower my fork, tilting my head. “You’re the one who moved the box, aren’t you?”

“What box?” He stops mid chew, eyes big and bright.

“The recipe box.”

His lips turn up in a grin, and I already know the answer before he solidifies it. “Yes.”

“You made me think I was losing it.”

“You weren’t. You were seeing everything the way I wanted you to see it, and it all led you closer to me.”

“This is messed up, isn’t it? Me eating waffles with my stalker and planning to introduce him to my family tomorrow?”

“Technically, I’ve already met your sister.” He smirks. “And does it feel messed up to you?”

“It would be to anyone else.”

“But is it to you?”

I lower my head, stirring my food around on my plate, and then I meet those molten brown eyes. “No, and I don’t know why.”

“Some things don’t need explanations. You want what I want and that’s all that matters. There’s this need in both of us that the other can fill that no one else can. So why does anyone else’s opinion matter?”

“I don’t know.”

“You kept leaving the door open for me. You never covered the windows. I saw all that as an invitation to move forward. Was I wrong to think that?”

“No.” I nibble on the inside of my cheeks. “I wanted you closer. I didn’t even know who you were, but I needed to keep seeing those eyes. It was dangerous and exciting. It was different from what I had with Daniel.”

“It is different, and so am I.”

“How do I know?”

“Because I’ll keep showing you I am. Everything between us is out in the daylight now, and I can’t wait for everyone to see us the way we are. To be with you outside this house, the back yard, and the diner.”

The heaviness in my chest lessens, and when he lays his hand on the table, I take it. If this is different, then that must mean he is too. I have to settle things between me and Daniel before I leave town, but tonight I’m going to have a movie night with my stalker.