Page 102 of The Elusive Billionaire

“Move.” The fear and anger in that one word lights a fire in my chest.

I don’t move.

“Greyson.” My name sounds like gravel on her lips. “Move.”

Using my forearms, I lift my weight off her, then stare down into a sea of green.

“More.” She blinks slowly and stares at my ear, my nose, my throat—anything to avoid my eyes.

“My sister did it for control when she had none.”

I’m sorry for sharing your secrets, Violet. I hope you understand why I am.

Savvy’s body locks beneath me again, nervous green eyes slowly dragging to mine, and I nod. “I pay attention, Sav. But I also recognize some of the signs.”

Moisture pools in her left eye, and she turns her head to hide it from me. My shoulder burns from the odd plank position I’m holding myself in, so I shift back to sit on my heels between her thighs and give her some space.

“I’m not starving myself,” she whispers into the silent night. The rest of the inn has been in bed for a while now.

“Then what are you doing? I know exactly what you’ve eaten for the last two weeks, and it’s not enough to sustain you, Sav.”

“It’s not what you think,” she bites back.

“Then help me understand.”

She finally turns her tortured expression my way. “You have to stop trying to fix me.”

My shoulders sag. I know that’s what she thinks. And for the most part, she’s right. I am a fixer. I have been for as long as I can remember, but with her, it’s different.

“It’s not you I want to fix, sweetheart. It’s your demons and the shadows that haunt you that I want to destroy.”

I hold perfectly still as she drags herself up to sit against the headboard.

“You’re so confusing, you know that, right?”

A smirk tugs at my lips. “Confusing is the least problematic thing you’ve ever called me.”

She playfully shoots a bare foot out to push me away, but I grab it in midair and hold it to my chest, right above my heart.

My thumb drags over her tiny tattoo of a cartoon firefly. I really should have caught on sooner that she was both Savvy and my Firefly.

“I’m serious, Patch.” She’s trying to put space between us again.

“I know.” Dropping her foot to the bed, I follow her soft skin up her shins, then plant my fists on the bed beside her, crawling as I go until I’m straddling her hips, and cup her face in my hands. “I spent all that time avoiding you, or telling you how much I hate you, and now you don’t know how to believe anything I say. I get it.”

Her gaze flicks back and forth between my eyes. I know she’s searching for inconsistencies and partial truths, but I’m being as honest as I know how to be.

Please see that, Savvy—see me.

“It was easier to hate you than to admit I needed you.” It’s an effort to keep my tone even when my heart is pulsating with all the emotions I try to lock away. “I pushed you away because if I didn’t, I’d have to acknowledge how lonely I was. And I knowyou won’t just take my word for it because I don’t open up like this to anyone. Braxton pulls shit from me sometimes, but I’ve never voluntarily given information, and even though I want to with you, it still feels like a razor is being ripped from my asshole with every single truth I lay at your feet.”

“That’s…very descriptive.”

I huff out a chuckle. “What I’m saying is that I’m trying here, Sav. Will you do the same?”

She bites her bottom lip and looks away. It’s long moments with my hands cupping her face, and the longer she keeps her eyes off me, the more painfully my chest riots.

“I’m not starving myself,” she whispers. Her stomach growls loudly, contradicting her statement. “I’m not.” She meets my stare. “Not really. I have…before. I don’t know how to explain this.”