KISS YOUR LIPS CLOSE

Pain.

It was the first thing that registered in her head as her eyes slowly cracked open.

The side of her head throbbed like she had run into a brick wall and her eyes burned from the light of the sun coming through her curtains.

Weird.

She always closed the windows and curtains before she went to bed, had she forgotten about it the previous night?

Her ears rang and her throat felt like she had eaten gobs of dry sand and then walked in a desert for an hour. She groaned as she drowsily brought her hands up to her face and rubbed her eyes.

“Good morning…” Came a deep voice at her side, the voice sent shivers down her spine…velvety smooth, filled with dark emotions and it still somehow managed to sound sleep affected.

Damn.

Were her fantasies finally coming to life?

“Good morning…” Halle replied and then groggily moved her hands from her face and opened her eyes.

Pale pink lips first came into view then dark brown eyes that held in so many emotions but yet didn’t give even a single one away.

He had a tall nose bridge, he had high cheekbones, and a well-defined, unshaven jawline.

His long hair was ruffled, brown locks rested on his neck and shoulders and his hand held his face up, those full lips stretched into a lazy smirk.

Halle sucked in a deep breath, it took her brain more than a few seconds to process the sight in front of her. The man was sin itself!

He was also a murderer!

Memories of the previous night came rushing in all at once, Halle gasped and jumped away from him.

Thud!

She felt her back hit the thick rug and was somehow thankful that she had chosen to cover her entire floor with rugs due to her tendency to fall out of bed during the night.

“You—”

He had shot someone in front of her.

“Why—why...you’re still here!”

Then he followed her home and demanded she patched him up.

From an injury she didn’t know how he got or where he got it from...The fact remained that he had a gun.

Her gaze ran down his shirtless frame, she struggled not to linger on the mouth-watering curves and slopes of his body while she tried to figure out where he might’ve kept the gun she knew he had.

He looked rather relaxed, the bed looked so small with him on it.

Wait...Did they sleep on the same bed?

Halle’s heart dropped to her stomach as she finally remembered how the night ended.

She had drugged him and he found out, so he cracked her head open like a fucking egg!

Sure enough, as Halle reached for the throbbing part of her head, she felt a large bump that had now been covered by a bandage.

Her eyes narrowed at the grinning man, did he do that?

“You seem startled,” He said in that raspy voice that did things to Halle’s knees.

“Don’t worry, you didn’t cheat on your ‘boyfriend’ in any way,”

He came down from the bed and stretched in the most glorious way, his muscles tensing and releasing, his jaw clenched and his eyes closed like he was deep in bliss.

A low sigh left his lips once he was done, and his eyes opened. Now serious, Halle felt like the temperature of the room had dropped and it suddenly became chilly.

She swallowed uncomfortably and subconsciously took a step back.

“How are you up?”

She had given him double the dose, she was certain that he wasn’t supposed to be on his feet till the moon was up but yet here he was, walking towards her in a predatory manner, acting like he didn’t hear her question.

Seeing as he wasn’t slowing down, Halle panicked and immediately ran for the front door.

The best thing to do was to leave the apartment.

A hand grabbed her before she could reach it, she felt her back press against his warm, bare chest and the heavens help her, the feeling was more blissful than it was scary.

His arm moved down to her waist and held her even tighter against him, his lips lowered to her left air, his warm breath leaving flames in its wake.

Shit!

Shit!

“You drugged me Flower,” He whispered, “You have to take responsibility for your actions...Don’t you think?” He said. His tone was one of contempt as his hold tightened and bordered on being painful.

“I...” Halle gasped for air, feeling dizziness wash over her as her body threatened to give out as it usually did whenever her heart beat too fast from fear or sometimes sorrow.

Damn it.

She was about to pass out!

Halle tried to suck in deep breaths just to steady her heartbeat. Her ears rang louder and she felt her knees slowly giving out.

“What’s wrong?” She felt his hold ease up and the chill in his tone lessen.

“I...I…” Her lips couldn’t form words and soon her sight became blurry. She felt her feet leave the ground, so suddenly that it took her breath away, her bathroom door squeaked open like it usually did, and then the sound of rushing water falling into her tub.

Was she in the bathroom?

It was colder in here, she had no heater...neither for water nor for her apartment.

She was slowly being lowered down.

What was he doing?

Why did he bring her into the bathroom?

She felt his hands leave her body and just when she felt like she was going to fall into a deep abyss, she heard a splash.

Soon cold water engulfed her body and a long and panicked breath left her throat.

She’d almost screamed at the sudden sensation, she gasped in outrage as she tried to reach for anything that could hold her up.

Her sight became clearer and her heart burned with rage rather than burning out as it had intended.

Finally, she held something, a well-toned arm, big, warm...His.

“What the actual fuck?!” Halle exclaimed as she looked up at the man who stood over the tub with a passive expression on his face while his brows were furrowed slightly.

“Why would you throw me into ice-cold water? Are you trying to get me killed?!”

Oh shit.

Maybe he was.

Halle’s eyes widened with panic as she quickly let go of his arm and tried to create as much distance from him as possible, which wasn’t much really.

She hugged her knees to her chest, feeling a bit protected while glaring his skin off.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” He tossed a dry towel to her.

“I just saved your life,” He said. There was that grin again, for some reason it kept getting on her nerves and making her fingers twitch with an increasing urge for violence.

“Oh really?” Halle said sarcastically, she scoffed as she stood from her crouching position and held the towel tighter against her chest. Her jeans, jacket, and camisole were soaked…damn it even she was soaked to the bones.

Goosebumps broke out on her skin as she shivered slightly.

“You’re breathing fine, aren’t you?” He commented with a shrug. His arms crossed over his tattooed chest, muscles flexing as he spoke.

Focus!

Halle berated herself as she dragged her gaze from his chest to his brown eyes...That seemed to make matters worse.

Why was there so much intensity in one’s gaze? She felt it down to her core, she couldn’t look away and she couldn’t keep her gaze on him either.

“How...”

This was the first time in all her 20 years that she didn’t pass out after getting that far gone. It started when she was eleven after she had lost her brother, her panic attacks were chronic and they came like hurricanes, they would sweep her off her feet and leave her off balance and unsteady for days.

Yet.

Has cold water been the answer the whole time?!

“I’ve struggled with panic attacks worse than yours since I was eight,”

Halle heard him say, caught off guard by that piece of information. It was something about him, something about the man that only had the label of a murderer in her mind. Now she was imagining a young boy of eight going through what she had just gone through...As much as she hated to admit it to herself, her heart softened a bit.

“My father would throw me in a tub filled with ice and it would calm,”

“Throw?” Halle’s brows furrowed.

His eyes suddenly darkened and he looked away.

“Are you ready to get out or do you plan on standing there all day?”

Ok.

He wasn’t giving to give her a reply.

She didn’t need it though, she didn’t want to know about the man, she just wanted him out of her life!

“You promised to leave after I patched you up!” Halle said in an accusatory manner.

“Which would’ve happened if you hadn’t tried something stupid like I warned you against,” His grin was wider now that he made his point.

Halle gritted her teeth and cursed under her breath.

“And besides,” He shrugged a shoulder, “I’m an insomniac, pills like the ones you gave me are like candy to my body,”

Wow, he was just saying so many things about himself.

“If you’re trying to get me to pity you...You should remember that I saw you—”

“—kill a man...Yes, yes,” He waved his hands dismissively.

“I had my reasons,” He said in a clipped tone, he wasn’t going to give her any more info.

“I’ll leave you to it,” He said and then walked out of the bathroom.

Halle stared long and hard at the door even after it had closed shut behind him.

She let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding and slowly slid back down into the cold water.

What had she gotten herself into?

….

Halle had opted to take a shower since she was already wet. After she had scrubbed her hair and body clean, she dried off with the towel he had given her and then wore her thickest robe. Grateful for the fact that she had decided to leave them in the bathroom rather than in her wardrobe.

She opened the door slowly, silently praying that she would meet an empty apartment. He would’ve gone and left her to her normal and hectic yet, peaceful life.

The scent of bacon and fried eggs drifted to her nostrils as she opened the door, sure enough, there he was.

Standing in front of the gas burner, Halle’s apron covering his chest and a spatula in hand.

His hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail and there were beads of sweat on his forehead. His skin was less pale and damn...He looked so fucking good just standing there and frying God-knows-what in her kitchen.

He sure got comfortable easily.

“If wishes were horses,” Halle muttered ruefully.

“We would all be unicorns!” Came the hearty reply from the kitchen.

Halle bit her bottom lip to stop a snarky reply as she walked past the kitchen area without a word.

Her gaze moved to the bed as she walked to her wardrobe.

It was empty.

Her heart dropped to her stomach in disappointment. He had discovered her phone.

Halle quickly ruffles through her clothes, finding her easy-to-wear lounge clothes. She pulled the oversized dress over her head.

It was a dark blue cotton dress that almost reached her ankles, she didn’t bother doing anything with her damp hair.

She didn’t have the leisure to do so, there was currently a stranger in her kitchen, cooking breakfast.

“Come, I made enough for two,”

Now he was inviting her over to the kitchen island. One would think he owned the place rather than the other way around.

His brown eyes held hers as she walked up to him. There was already a filled-up plate waiting for her and two glasses of orange juice...The expensive orange juice she only opened up for important occasions, set on the island.

Halle eyed the food cautiously, as mouth-watering as it looked, this might be his revenge.

“I didn’t poison your food Flower,” he said as he filled up his own plate and turned off the burner.

“I’m not you,” He said with a laugh which made Halle scowl and rub her heated cheeks.

“Tch!” She rolled her eyes.

He was making it seem like what she did was so dishonorable compared to what he did.

He chuckled and turned around to put the pan in the sink.

Halle saw the outline of a phone in his back pocket…and scars. Heavens the man had so many scars on his back that it looked like he was born with it but, Halle could tell which was caused by blades and which was caused by bullets.

Just what had he done to have gotten so many scars?

Was he a veteran?

Or something else.

Why did that scare her even more?

“You keep staring into space like that and I’ll be tempted to kiss your lips close myself,"

Halle choked on the first piece of bacon she had put in her mouth.

What did he just say?!