Page 133 of Velvet Corruption

He wouldneverknow. “A shower won’t fix everything. It won’t fix, anything, really,” he said. “But it’s a start.”

“What do you want from me?”

“What I told you before. I can make this go away, Ruby, but you have to listen. Right now, it doesn’t feel like you’re listening,” he said, taking a step closer to me. He brushed a strand of hair away from my face. “I need you to help me so I can help you. So will you please go upstairs and have a shower?”

My grip on the counter loosened, my fingers uncurling one by one until they lay flat against the cool metal. Until I didn’t have the strength to hold on any longer.

I didn’t answer him.

I couldn’t.

But I didn’t push him away, either.

It felt like giving up.

Like surrender.

And maybe that’s what it was.

I turned to face him again, slowly this time, the fight gone from my limbs and my voice.

“So what, are you just going to babysit me now?” I asked

“If that’s what it takes,” Kieran replied.

I allowed a hollow laugh to escape. “I don’t need you.”

“Sure you don’t,” Kieran murmured back, and the worst part was that it sounded as if he believed my claim. Yet, he still didn’t leave.

The air between us was thick with uncertainty, with all the things I couldn’t say and all the things he wouldn’t push me to admit.

And in that space, in that silence, something inside of me broke.

It was my last defense, the last wall I’d put up to keep him out.

And once it was gone, I didn’t have the energy to rebuild it.

I didn’t have the energy for anything at all.

The anger was gone, the defiance burned out, leaving only acceptance and an exhaustion so deep I couldn’t see the bottom of it.

I needed help.

I needed Kieran.

I couldn’t keep pretending otherwise, no matter how much I wanted to.

The last of my resolve slipped away, leaving me bare and unprotected in front of him.

Leaving me open to whatever came next.

I looked at Kieran, really looked at him, and I saw the truth of it there in his eyes, in the way he held himself, in the way he didn’t turn away when I was finally laid bare.

The air shifted, the weight of everything settling into something I could almost breathe through.

Almost.

I wasn’t going to win this one.