Chapter 148Katie's POVWithout her, I have nothing. In the same way, I have nothing without you if you get in trouble. I can’t stop you from doing what you need to do if that’s the best course of action for you… And I’ve already told you I’d do anything for you and wouldn’t mind if your face was the last thing I saw if we’d gotten to that. But if you don’t need to do any of that… To end me… Then you have to let me go.”His eyes glint with quiet determination before I lean to him and place a soft kiss on his lips.He doesn’t move like he’s carved in stone, and I break away from him this time without him stopping me.I’ve never kissed a man like him before. I’ve never kissed a man.They kissed me, and they were boys.My ex included.As I pull away from him, he doesn’t move, yet the heat of his body curls around me as if wanting to make me stay.His eyes burn like his skin, fueled by his turmoil.“I’m going to sleep,” I say. “It’s been an eventful evening.”I pull away from him for goo
Chapter 149Cephus’ POVKatie has slept the whole afternoon, and though I want to wake her, every time I walk into the room to do it, I can’t. She looks so at peace in bed, and I know if I wake her, the peacefulness that resides within her now will be gone.Instead, I sit in the chair across from the bed and watch her delicate body. I appreciate her plump lips, the slope of her back, and the way her mouth parts as she allows a sigh to escape her lips as she sleeps.She is magnificent, and she is mine. No longer able to hold back, I slip back into bed beside her. I need her to wake up. I need to talk to her, tell her how much her life has changed. The moment she saved my life is the moment she became a part of this war.“Piccolo…” I whisper in her ear. She doesn’t move, and for a moment, I think she doesn’t hear me. That is until my eyes sweep across her face. Her big, brown, doe eyes are wide open, peering up at me.“What time is it?” she asks, her voice full of sleep. I smile at the
Chapter 150Cephus' POV“That night he got me out of the basement, the night you came home with that girl,” Katie replies. Fire builds in her eyes when she says that girl. I want to tell her who Alessandra is, but I need to figure this whole Eli thing out first.“What did he do to you?” I clench my teeth, not wanting to hear what he did. Her eyes glaze over, and it is as if she is reliving the whole scene. Her body shakes as a single tear escapes her eye. Had I been that dark and uncaring that I hadn’t noticed someone who is mine, and mine alone, had been violated?“He just wouldn’t leave me alone. He touched me and pushed me down on the stairs in the basement. He told me I was a distraction for you…” She sounds hurt as if she wants me to contradict what Eli said. Except he is right, she is a distraction. She wove herself deep under my skin and somehow made her way into my black heart, causing it to beat again.“Did he…?” I can’t even say it. If he touched her like that, my patience
Chapter 151Cephus’ POVKatie has found a way under my skin, and each day that she is here, I feel myself losing my grip on things. I’m not soft, I can’t be. In this world, there is only strength or weakness. Being weak is certain death, and strength is power, something necessary when you have men breathing down your throat and people shooting at you.“I just don’t want to die yet. I have so many plans… My mom died rather young, and I want to fulfill everything before my time comes.” Her words cause a hole in my chest to form. She’s opening up to me about her mother and her death. God, does it make me feel even more like a fucking asshole for treating her like shit, for putting her through all this. It has to be done, though, softness is a weakness.She sounds defeated as she talks about her mom. I knew when her father came for money what his story was. His wife had died from cancer, so he was alone with a daughter and needed to find a way to make ends meet.“What type of cancer did
Chapter 152Cephus' POVMy eyes pop open as I stare at her face. She feels sorry for me. She sees me as that young boy who lost his mom, who lost everything, and that’s not what I want. I don’t want pity for what I have done or gone through.“I don’t want your pity, Katie. I don’t want you to tell me what I can and can’t do, what will work and won’t work. We all have our own ways of working through things, and I get by just fine with what I do…” My voice is so full of anger that I have to clench my hands from lashing out at her.Why does what she says bother me so fucking much? Because she’s right, my mind whispers to me, which just makes me angrier, of course.Her mouth parts, and it looks as if she is going to say something. Then she closes it, only to open it again. “I don’t feel sorry for you. That’s the last fucking thing I feel for you. The blood on your hands is because of you, and there isn’t any type of pity or saying sorry that can make that shit go away. I just know what i
Chapter 153Katie's POVDid he just say he loves me? Did Cephus King actually tell me that he loves me? Is he even capable of love?His eyes hold all the answers I will ever need. However, he isn’t giving any away. All I can tell is that he meant what he said. He loves me.“Shut that sassy ass mouth, Katie. Fuck me. Of course, I fucking love you. How can I not? You’re beautiful. You don’t take any shit from me. You killed someone for me, and you’re still dealing with my ass after all this… So, now will you please, pretty fucking please, ride my cock until I’m swelling, and my seed leaks out into you?”Though it isn’t the sweetest way to confess your love for someone, it is perfect for Cephus.“Fuck, yes, I will,” I say, kissing him fiercely.“That a girl…” he somehow mumbles while my lips are on his. My hands go into his hair, gripping at the softness of it. He is beautiful, even if he is lost and broken on the inside. I know if I could do anything, it would be to save him from himse
Chapter 154Katie's POVCephus made me a cup of herbal tea from the cabin supplies, and I was pretty sure he added a splash of something that wasn’t provided in the tea tray, but it was failing to calm me down.I thought I’d accepted the situation I was in, but this was much worse than the worst I had prepared for. As a kidnapper, I could be frightened, hurt, mutilated… even murdered, but once it got to that point I wasn’t going to care very much, and anyway, Cephus wasn't interested in inflicting extreme harm on a whim.Marriage was a life sentence.Around the middle of the day, Cephus came in with a little suitcase and a smaller, transparent plastic bag filled with toiletries: a small toothbrush and toothpaste, soap, a shower cap, and a few other boxed items I didn’t want to think about the use of.I pushed them across the bed. “Do you get special care packages made up for the girls whose lives you plan to completely ruin?”“It’s standard hotel equipment, Katie, don’t be dramatic.”
Chapter 155Katie's POVA permanent partner to me is what will balance me, reaffirm and remind me of my humanity when I am required to do very dark things, giving my life the significance it would otherwise lack.”The way he talked, it was like someone was forcing him to be some violent kneecap-smashing criminal. “Well, you’ve kidnapped the wrong girl, Cephus. Even if I wanted to, I could never do those things for you. There’s nothing soft or supportive about me.”I stiffened into silence when he reached over and put his hand on my bare knee. “Please, Katie, it’s Cephus. I don’t need to have women giving me this last-name attitude like they’re on the opposite side of me in a business deal. You at least are not, thank God for that.”“Oh, there’s that sexism jumping out again.”“I’d like to ask you, Katie, where you think your life is going if you’re not planning on getting married? You mentioned being ‘left to your own devices’… what are those, exactly? The television, your smartphone?