Page 36

PSYCHO

If Kage could see me now, I’d have a knife in my flesh, but I don’t fucking care. When I asked her if she wanted to watch a movie, her answering smile was all that mattered. The light in her eyes had me once again rubbing that spot in my chest.

She cuddles up against me on the couch, while she watches the chick flick on the screen. She covers her mouth with a gasp, and tears roll down her cheeks, as the hero of the movie drops to his knees, declaring his love for the blonde on screen, that he’s been away from. The moral to this story is that love wins in the end, even when tragedy after tragedy threatens everything. As the credits roll, she turns to me and catches me watching her, instead of the lame movie.

Folding her arms over her chest, she scolds me.

“Were you even watching the movie?”

I move a hair out of her face, and lean in, brushing my lips over hers.

“You watched what you enjoy watching, and so did I.”

“Massimo,” she sighs my name, her breath dancing over my lips.

Placing her hand on the back of my head, she pulls me closer, closing the distance between our lips, and presses hers to mine. She pushes her tongue into my mouth, and it’s a slow sweet kiss until she whimpers, and I lose my mind. I move my hands to her hair, and take control as I always do. She doesn’t complain, instead responding by matching my hungry pace, and giving me the moans that I fucking love. When I pull back, she’s completely dazed, when a slow smile appears on her face.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Hadley.”

She blushes and shakes her head, like she’s trying to right her mind.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that name.”

Grabbing her waist, I pull her onto my lap, kiss the side of her neck, and fight my groan.

Fucking pomegranates and mango.

I’ll never get used to her scent, so I let it fill me as I close my eyes, and kiss her gently, again and again.

Looking up at me with a hopeful gaze, she asks the question I wish I had an answer for.

“Do you know who killed my father?”

“I don’t, but I promise you, I will find out.”

She lays her head against my chest, and I wrap my arms around her back, holding her tight.

“Where did you go after you left?”

With a soft sigh, she says, “We moved to the trailer park. Your father wanted to help, but my mother was convinced it was his doing, so she flat out refused any help.”

I kiss her on the top of the head, not ignorant to the tears on my chest.

“Did she immediately decline?”

She nods against my chest, as she exhales a shaky breath.

“After the burial, she was never the same. I was a child, but I had to do everything she couldn’t bring herself to. Your mom left food on our porch every week for years, but eventually she stopped. It always put a smile on my face. It was like a link to my old life.”

“I didn’t know. If I did, I would’ve done something. I don’t know what, because I was also a kid at the time, but fuck, I would’ve done something.”

She gazes up at me with emotion in her eyes, and my breath catches in my throat. Don’t say it, Hadley. Don’t fucking say it.

“I love you, Massimo.”

My heart pounds, and my head spins.

“That’s not what this is, little lamb. I don’t love. I’ll take care of you, but love, marriage, and babies? I can’t give you that. I won’t.”

Turning in my lap, she straddles me and places her hands on my face, as she stares at me with a sad expression.

“You deserve to be loved too, Massimo.”

She lays her head on my shoulder, and speaks in a voice barely above a whisper.

“I think I loved you when I was twelve. The anger of what I thought your father did, took me down a different road, one of vengeance, but if I’m honest, I think I always loved you. It doesn’t matter what you say, Massimo. Love is not a decision, it chooses you. You have given me every reason to not love you, and yet, I still do. If I had the choice, though, Massimo, I’d choose you. I see the real you. Not the Psycho, because that’s a small part of the man you are. You’re so much more, and I love all of you. Even the broken, jagged edges.”

I hold her closer, unable to reciprocate her feelings, but knowing damn well, I don’t want to spend a day without her.