Beloved (Heart Hunter Series Book 1)

Chapter 10

His draped arm along her waist held her tight, accompanied by his steady breath on the back of her neck which woke her from her dead sleep. It all rushed back as she remembered all of what had happened: her brother, her mother and, now, she was in her grandparents’ house with James next to her on a sagging twin mattress that had been brand new much before her birth.

Her fingers traced the watch on his wrist, she didn’t look at the time on purpose. Listening to him breathe, she pretended just for one second that her life was different, and things had worked out some other better way.

She rolled over to face him and took in his handsome and distinguished features, thinking of how she could enjoy them forever, if forever had been given to them.

As the sunlight filled the room, she wondered how long they’d been there. How long she’d been sleeping away her mental tap-out. She didn’t deserve it but she was thankful for it.

“Kara,” his groggy voice rolled her name with a delicacy she could have gotten used to.

“Have I been up here long?”

“ Mm. My ability to keep track of time is becoming increasingly more difficult.” His arm left her and he brought a hand to his face, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “And my neck is stiff.”

“Yeah, it’s never been a good bed for that,” she whispered with honesty. Their eyes met and an awkwardness fizzled.

“What?” She said after a long moment.

He paused long enough to make her heart flutter. “Even given the bed, it was nice sleeping next to you.”

She loved his closeness, every inch of it. “Is it?”

He took her cheek, and with that, her guilt wrapped her in an abyss.

“H-how are my grandparents?”

“It sounds like they are sorting things out.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

He sighed. “Their grieving is obvious.”

Kara’s eyes welled. “I can’t face them.”

“They understand you did all you could. This entire thing blindsided everyone, myself included.”

Her eyes shut from the pain of that statement, if only she felt it was true and James sighed as she started to cry.

“I don’t deserve to cry like this.”

His arms moved around her and scooped her close. The tightness of his hold, if she’d let it, would have been enough comfort to get her through most.

But at that moment, she struggled against her internal Demons and they tried to win with unrelenting force.

“You asked me to come home with you.”

“I did.”

“I can’t do that.” She kept her eyes off him, afraid he’d see her fear.

That being the absolute fear of when Tom would come to collect her and she’d never see her grandparents or James again.

“Just think on it a bit more”

She shook her head to stop him. “I don’t belong in your world. Okay?” Her debts would never be normal like his, her life would never play out like his and that meant, their lives would never entwine like he wanted.

“What does that even mean?”

“I really don’t want to talk about this right now,” she snapped at him, moving out of his arms and standing up in a not so subtle attempt to avoid anymore of the topic.

“When do you want to talk about it? Because I want you in my life.” He sat up, wincing through his stiffness. His bare chest caught the sun coming through the small window and she hated how much she liked looking at him like that.

“Honestly, I think you need to go home.” Kara grabbed the banister along the stairs, needing the support as her ribs ached from where they were bruised.

“I told you, I’m not leaving you this time.” He stood in just his boxers and she looked away.

“We’re from two very different worlds and they were never supposed to cross paths. You know it, I know it… everyone knows it.”

“Well, we met and it’s too late now”

She turned back towards him as the conversation and her frustration grew. “Yeah, that’s funny, because the past year my life has sucked because of you, and what you did to me. How you just left me in my room after making me feel so much for you… Never mind practically seeing me naked!

You kissed me, you touched me…” He silenced and she continued, “You think you can make this better, but you can’t. There’s no making this better. There’s no making me better—”

“I’m sorry for how I treated you a year ago.”

She rolled her eyes.

“You might not care to hear it but I was being a boy about how I felt about you. I have no excuse for that because that is all on me and my apparent inability to handle the situation between us at the time.”

She stared at him between the flaring of her nostrils and the pounding of her heart, she just wanted to die right then and there. “I don’t care anymore, just… just go home!” She jogged down the stairs away from him and as much as it killed her heart, she prayed it would stop her pain.

“Kara, you’re up.” Her grandmother greeted her as she walked from behind the tapestry and into the kitchen. Her grandparents’ emotion-struck faces killed any bit of hope she’d held onto briefly coming down the stairs.

“How are you?” Her grandmother approached her and raised her hands to Kara’s pale cheeks. “Feeling better?”

Kara attempted to hold back her budding tears as James walked into the kitchen behind her, thankfully dressed. “I’m fine,” she muttered.

Lauren parted from her. “I’ll heat you up some leftovers. Will that be okay?”

Kara looked at the clock to see it was late afternoon. “Thanks.”

James moved around her and sat to the kitchen table. Their eyes met briefly and she hated the new level of tension that had built between them.

“Your mother called. She’s looking for you. I told her you’re here with James.” Lauren brought the pot from the fridge and put it on the stove to heat up.

“You two had a fight?” Her grandfather asked.

“Doesn’t matter, does it?” Going into detail on her mother dragging her down the stairs is something she wanted to avoid at all costs. Her grandparents didn’t need to hear that level of fucked.

“The funeral is in two days.” Lauren announced. “We discussed it this morning.”

Kara’s eyes widened. “Funeral?”

“Of course.” Her grandmother nodded. “We need to lay him to rest.

Something decent needs to happen in this situation.”

“I agree,” James said as he reached for an empty mug and the steaming pot of tea in the middle of the table. She was suddenly ill. Her stomach lurched and with it, she rushed from the kitchen to the bathroom. With her insides afire and her nerves on the brink, she reached the toilet just in time.

The torture of not having any drugs for longer than she could count, begged her to break her sobriety. Her eyes watered as she heaved into the toilet bowl.

“Kara,” he said, his voice soft and smooth. She felt his hands on her shoulders as he came up behind her.

She didn’t open her eyes, partly from embarrassment but mostly from inability. He brushed her hair out of her face as she broke into tears, and pulled her into him. His touch again lightened the blow, making her see the light at the end of the tunnel. If she could have just been with him and not Tom.

“It’s withdrawals.” She put her hand to her forehead as she tried to stop her tears. “I honestly….” She opened her eyes slowly, her gaze finding his. “I honestly didn’t know I was this… dependent.”

“You needed something to depend on, didn’t you?” He kissed her cheek in comfort. Closing her eyes, she listened to his heart. He was dependable and she loved him for it. She wished her life could have always been dependent on him, it would have never turned out the way it had. Instead she had to lie-low for two days and hopefully avoid Tom just so she could say goodbye to Josh.

“Will you stay until his funeral?”

“Of course, I will.”

She shut her eyes again and let him hold her. Deciding that for those next two days, she was going to take every bit of comfort he gave her. Her phone rang again accompanied by the tin-like sound of the vibration mode dying. It was Tom, she didn’t have to look. He had already called every hour on the hour that day but all she needed was one more day. It would be only a matter of time before he sent his men after her. It wasn’t a matter of if but when.

The terror of not getting that one last day to honor her brother almost destroyed her. She had to ensure she’d be at the funeral and that meant taking a risk that may make it happen.

She stared at herself in the cracked, dusty mirror, her reflection just lit by the bit of moonlight filtering in. Her broken and bruised skin from the fight still plastered across her limbs and boney features showed up even worse in that light. She pulled the hoodie up her bare shoulders and zipped the coat up.

It would work, if she needed it to. She turned to look over her shoulder at James asleep in bed. Though she’d fallen asleep in his arms not even three hours before, the sound of her phone had woken her. There were things she could avoid but this wasn’t one of them. Tom would come for her or she could go to him.

With slow motion fingers, she picked up the car keys from the side table and took one last glance at James. If things didn’t go as she planned, she’d never see him again and that churned her stomach.

She tiptoed down the stairs and made it out of the house with record skills. No one had woken and she knew starting the quiet Audi might not be

so quiet at three in the morning, so she made it quick, rolling onto the grass to avoid the gravel driveway and seeming to escape without the porch lights turning on.

It was just about getting up her courage the entire drive. The coffee shop hadn’t changed from the night before but at least this time it wasn’t a hurricane blowing above. She walked in and the door dinged.

“Who is it!” Tom’s voice snapped from the back room.

“It’s me.”

His lackeys were nowhere to be seen as he stepped from behind the dark doorway to the back room. His eyes honed in on her like a wolf and his approach mimicked one, each step slower and quieter than the next.

She almost ran. She wished she could.

“I’ve been looking for you. Everywhere. Where the fuck have you been?”

“My brother died. I needed to tell my grandparents.”

Tom stopped in front of her with his emotionless expression. “Sorry to hear that.”

“You really sound sorry,” she snapped. “But I guess you knew I was alive from your spy that helped me survive it all.”

He smiled with a tilt of his head. “I didn’t have anyone out with you. I can’t afford to lose any men right now to a bunch of Demons, not with my parents breathing down my neck about territory issues on the drug lines. Plus, you had that other Hunter helping you. She seemed psycho enough to be useful. I used last night to get ahead, no scuzzy Demons trying to steal from me meant more drug runs.”

Kara glanced around and still, no other movement came. He was alone. “It was a black wolf.”

Tom stared at her. “Black? That’s a rare color. A sign of an Alpha-blood.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Alpha-blood? What’s that?”

“Rare amongst Lyc a n, that’s what it is. Did he have any markings?”

“I don’t think so.” Her picture perfect Hunter family made answering his questions too easy. “Just black fur.”

Tom sneered. “Someone else is keeping tabs on you, I don’t like it.”

Kara swallowed, not expecting the direction the conversation had taken.

“No one wants me, trust me. It must have been a coincidence.”

He eyed her. “You’re mine now, don’t forget it.”

“I know and that’s why I’m here… I need a favour.”

He started to laugh. “I think you’re tapped out on favours.”

“Please, To m. I just want to go to my brother ’s funeral and then, I’m yours.”

His breath hit her face and it just wasn’t the same as James’ breath on her as she slept, wrapped in his hold that felt safe and secure. She’d left that for this.

Tom sneered. “Unless you have something else of value to offer me, you’re mine… right now and you’re staying here with me.”

Somehow, she’d know n it would come to that and she stripped her tattered hoodie to the floor, revealing her breasts to him without a bra. “I’m still a virgin. You can have me. I just need to be at Josh’s funeral, please.” The level of degradation she felt she knew she’d never get back but this was Tom, at least it wasn’t a total stranger. She’d kissed him so many times she couldn’t count. He’d touched her more times than that.It was just Tom. That’s what she’d attempt to keep telling herself.

“This is surprising.” He looked her over as he thought over the proposal. “But a good insurance policy. Get on the counter over there.”

Her heart pounded as he accepted the deal.

“You know I’ve wanted to do this for so long.” He walked her step for step back to the coffee bar and lifted her up on it by the waist. When he pushed her down to her back, her elbows stuck to the wood from spilled beverages that hadn’t been cleaned up from the day’s sales. He eyed her with that same dangerous expression and then reached to pull off her pants. The jeans didn’t come off as easily and he ruined thezipper in the process to get them chucked aside. Her bareness felt the cold particularly hard right then and she shivered as his fingers ran up her thighs to her chest.

“You belong to me. You won’t forget that after this.” His smile broke to his laugh as he undid his jeans, they fell to his ankles and the keys in his pocket had taken a ride with them, chiming at her.

She refused to look, so she tilted her head back and shut her eyes, waiting for him to do what he wanted.

“Look at me !” He grabbed her by her throat and hauled her head up.

“You don’t get to do that.”

Her eyes opened and that’s when her bottom lip got the best of her, quivering from the fear as his cock pressed against her. She felt nothing but a hollow shell of her self worth as he penetrated her. She prayed she’d just go paralyzed the longer it continued, him moving in and out of her in a pistoning fashion that broke her into pieces. There was no lead up, he just got straight to it. Her head tilted to the side when he finally let her throat go and he pressed harder, moving faster. It was nothing like she imagined. It felt hard, cold, lonely. It might have been her first time but she hoped it was her last.

He panted against her chest, biting her breast and she shoved him off as a reflex, but his correction was faster and he pinned her down.

“Don’t hit me !”

She only tried to struggle for a second more before she realized she could blow her one chance to be at the funeral and that thought alone made her give up her will-power. He pumped harder, faster, longer. She wondered when it would be over. How much longer would it last and that’s when he slammed into her, groaning like a pig about to die.

She shut her eyes so she wouldn’t see the smirk on his face, trying not to breathe as he panted a smell of dog’s breath and cigarettes on her face. He stepped back and she slipped to her feet, feeling a bit of fluid leaking from between her thighs. The embarrassment of being in front of him was enough, never mind the rest of it.

“That wasn’t bad for our first time, no more hitting next time though or I’ll hit you back.”

She nodded and kept her eyes everywhere but on him. He grabbed her chin before she ducked for her clothing. “Who do you belong to now, Kara?”

“You,” she breathed through the disappointment in her heart.

He dropped the contact with her. “When is your brother ’s funeral?”

“In another day.”

“After it, you better be here and don’t think I won’t have eyes on you the entire damn time.”

She nodded. “I’ll be here. Don’t worry.” “Good.” He stepped into her suddenly and put his nose to her hair, taking a long deep whiff of her scent. “I’ll never forget the way you smell. It’s so sweet. So unnaturally sweet.”

She stepped back and found her clothes, pulling on her hoodie and jeans with a swiftness.

“You made a fair trade.” Tom looked pleased and she was thanking god if there was onethat her plan had worked. “See you later, baby.”

“Yeah.” Kara nodded and left the coffee shop, barefoot because finding her shoes just hadn’t been enough of a concern. When she got into the car, she collapsed over the wheel and started to cry. That was just another thing she’d never get back in her life. She hated how it hurt her heart, know ing she’d given it to Tom when she’d only held onto it for the past four years for James since she’d met him. Even when all hope of their relationship had been lost, she’d still held on to a smidgen of hope. Now, there wasn’t one salvageable thing left about her, it made letting herself go to Tom easier.

She started the car through her streaming tears and drove slowly back to the farm house.

The dark roadways entranced her into a numbness that spread through her and kept her still in her mind.

When she got back to the dark silence of her grandparent’s little home, she crawled, hands and knees, up the stairs to the bathroom and took a shower. No matter how hard she scrubbed her skin, made herself red, she could still feel his hands on her. Tom was all over her and there was no getting him out of her that time.

His teeth had bitten her, his hands had grabbed her and his cock had fucked her.

She dried off not feeling any more relieved and made her way up to put James’ keys back on the nightstand. He opened his eyes as she stepped near the bed.

“Where have you been?”

She gulped, wondering if that was a guess that she’d left the house or if he knew. There was no hiding it though.

He watched her drop his keys to the stand. “Are you okay?”

She started to cry and he got up off the bed to comfort her. He reached out but she winced away.

“Kara.” He watched her refuse to look at him as the seconds passed.

“It’s okay, it’s me.” He scooped her face into his hands and she nose-dived his bare chest, sobbing into it. “What happened, love?”

She shook her head in reply. There were no words to explain what she’d done for just one more day of freedom.

James sighed when he got no answers to his questions and she could only imagine how frustrating that must have been for him. She’d never be able to tell him though. Ever.

He walked her backward to the bed and made her sit, where she hugged her towel around her chest. He reached for his bag on the floor and dragged it closer, finding her one of his clean shirts.

“Here.” He put it on her lap.

She looked down to the offering but when she didn’t move, James did it for her.

“You’re shivering. How cold was that shower?”

She couldn’t form an answer to that question but he was right, she was frozen.

He brought the shirt over her head and guided her arms through the cotton shirt before finally shimming the towel out from under. His hands left her carefully, not touching her in any way he shouldn’t.

“Do you want me to hold you?”

She moved to her side in a fetal position and sobbed, but her nod was visible. The desperation of someone familiar touching her became extreme. She could still feel Tom inside of her, moving in and out as he got what he’d always wanted. Her scream never came, even when her mouth opened to allow it.

“Good god.” James lied down next to her. “Come here.”

She let out a loud sob and turned into his chest again, crying against him and the blankets he wrapped around her. A cocoon of protection that made her calm a bit.

“Shh.” He hushed her, bringing her close. So close she felt all of him, even the parts she had once wondered about. Her knee went between his thighs and he allowed her to crawl all over him, while he stayed quiet, caring, protective. All the things she’d needed, James became in that moment. She didn’t feel deserving of that kind of comfort. She didn’t deserve how he made her feel by holding her. All the while though, she clung to him like he may vanish and he let her, the entirety of the rest of that night.

“Kara.”

She woke as he hand brushed the hair from her face. “Yeah?”

He gave her a small smile. “You don’t have to get up. I just want to know what size you are.”

She rolled from her stomach to her side, mumbling. “Why?”

“I didn’t think you’d want to wear my sweat pants to the funeral tomorrow. I’ll go get you something.”

She let out a breath, she supposed that was a valid point. She felt her bare legs under the blankets and realized she was only in one of his shirts.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“It’s nine thirty in the morning. You got home last night and we fell asleep together.” His fingers brushed through her hair.

Her stomach knotted as images of Tom flashed through her mind. “I don’t know where you were, Kara but I wish you would tell me what happened.”

“Nothing happened.” She hugged the blankets to her chest and shut her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at him any longer.

“You’re bruised here.” His hand pushed the blankets off her hips to reveal her bare legs and bottom. Her thigh slip forward onto the bed to hide herself but his fingers stayed on her and traced the dark purple and blue mar kings across her thighs. His hand on her warmed the swollen skin and masked the way it ached. “Who did this to you, Kara?”

“Why does it matter?” she muttered but heard his growl.

“Because I’ll rip his fucking head off.”

She blinked at him through the morning light. “It was just from the fight to get Josh. no one did it to me.” She saw he didn’t believe her and she shut her eyes to ignore it. “I think I’m like a size six or something.” He let out a breath and covered her back up in the quilts.

“Alright. And your feet?”

She had to think for a moment. “Eight and a half.”

He leaned in and she froze, his lips meeting the top of her head before he stood. She grabbed a handful of his shirt as he went to move away and her eyes flashed open. He pressed his mouth to her ear. “I’ll be back in a bit,

love.”

She let him go even though she didn’t want to and as he walked away, she listened to his footsteps descend the attic room stairs. Her eyes shut from the pain in her chest. Josh… Tom… she grabbed the pillow and screamed into it. The feather down poking through the cotton muted her enough and she screamed again, until her vocal cords started to hurt ten minutes later and she fell into her silence and never ending tears. The hours passed by with the shadows that moved across the wood floors like ghosts.

“Kara…”

She pulled her hot blotchy face from the bedding as her grandmother sat to the bed next to her. “James said we should check on you.”

Kara wiped her cheeks. “I’m fine…”

Her grandmother sighed. “You don’t look fine.”

It made her angry and she snapped at the older woman, “How do youexpect me to look? After all this… I killed him”

“Oh, Karrie. Our world is cruel and unfair and being a Hunter only makes it worse. You did what you could.”

“You weren’t there.” She turned away from her grandmother so she could cry without the sympathy.

“I know, but I understand what you went through. I’ve tried and failed at saving the innocent and the guilt is hard to overcome.”

Kara sat up, controlled by the anger running through her. “This is my brother. These aren’t just people”

“I understand the difference, Kara but you need to find a way to accept this wasn’t your fault. Demon do not play fair. They never will.”

Kara swallowed.

“Perhaps leaving with James—”

“What?” Kara’s eyes widened.

“He suggested it. I think maybe that you need a break from this town. What do you think?”

“No,” Kara snapped, stopping the idea before it tried to work into her head. “I can’t.”

“Why not, Kara? He’s willing—”

“I’m not talking about this.” Kara got off the bed and grabbed her jeans from the floor. She jumped into them before jogging down the stairs, hearing her grandmother calling for her.

The front door opened as soon as she stepped into the foyer and James walked in the door. Her eyes went to his hands and the two large white bags. “How are you?” he asked.

She boiled over. “You told my grandparents you want me to come home with you?”

He put the bags down against the nearby wall. “It was a suggestion.”

“A suggestion? That’s my choice, James,” she snapped.

“I’m not trying to take that from you.” His eyes went above her head as Lauren walked down the stairs.

“Supper is almost ready.” The woman came past them. Kara waited for her grandmother to slip behind the tapestry and into the kitchen down the hall before she approached him. “Don’t do that ever again.”

He sighed.

Her eyes went to the bags and back to him. “And I hope you didn’t buy all that for me.”

“You can’t keep wearing my clothes.” He went around her and stripped his coat.

She tipped forward enough to look in the bags. The folded items were piled together neatly with a few tags sticking out every which way that read anywhere from twenty-nine to fifty-nine dollars. Holy shit.

Her eyes went to James as he hung his jacket to the rack, it balanced in one direction when he let it go.

“Why don’t you go change? Those jeans look wet.”

They were, and the zipper was broken from Tom but she’d been ignoring it so far.

She took the bags in her hesitant hands. “I’ll pay you back.”

“No, you won’t.” He pulled out his phone from his back pocket as it buzzed from an incoming call. “I need to take this.”

Kara watched him walk into the living room, answering the call. She huffed, he was frustrating how he just did that and expected her not to want to pay him back.

She walked for the washroom to change. As soon as she shut herself inside the tiny bathroom, she ripped apart the bags. The brand new clothes were soft, some stretchy, others basic but nice. It was a contrasting pallet between maroons, blacks and a bit of greys. Then she found the dress at the bottom and guessed that was for the funeral. It was form fitted mid-thigh dress, not revealing by any means but much nicer than anything she’d ever owned. She flipped the price tag along the neckline and swallowed. Two-hundred and seventy-five!

She sat to the toilet with a thump and shut her eyes. Clutching the dress to her chest as she tried to process the amount of money he’d spent on her. This is wrong. So wrong…

“Kara…” James was on the other side of the door suddenly. “Dinner.”

“Oh…” She stuck the dress back in the bag. “Ok.” He walked away and she stripped the clothes she’d been in for a soft cotton shirt that hugged around her lack of curves and a pair of leggings that were more comfy than anything she’d ever owned before.

She glanced at herself in the mirror and flipped on the tap to wash her face. The new clothing sparked a need to freshen up and she even tied her hair up in a ponytail before leaving the bathroom.

She brought everything out with her and dropped the bags and old clothes in the hall before walking into the kitchen. There her eyes met James’ first as he sat at the table. The smile that budded his lips was hard to ignore. She slipped into the chair next to him as he watched her.

“Thank you for the clothes,” she whispered while the pan cooking food hissed in the background. “They’re a little tight though, I think.”

“No, they look nice on you,” he said and she watched his hand on the table top almost touch hers but he never got there and it was likely for the best.

“What are the plans?” Kara asked her grandparents as Lauren walked a pan of stir fry over and put it to a hot plate.

“Your mother just wants the burial.”

Kara paused. “That’s it?”

“Some words will be said, by her… You, if you’d like to?”

“My mother asked if I’d speak?

Lauren sighed. “I told her you may want to.”

Kara swallowed.

“You should.”

“I don’t know.” Kara admitted. She watched James as he helped himself to the food.

They ate in silence and her grandfather excused himself to watch the news afterward. Kara stayed to clean up with her grandmother and James helped dry every dish she washed but still no one said anything. She hated that every minute that passed reminded her more that Josh wasn’t coming back and she walked away once she was done.

“Where are you going?” James followed her into the hall. “The porch.” She was desperate for fresh air and James joined her. As soon as she stepped out into the outside, she realized it was her last night of freedom. His hands came to her shoulders from behind and she shut her eyes, feeling the tears start.

“You should say something at the funeral.”

“Is it even a funeral?”

He let out a breath and stepped against her, his arms slipping around her waist. Her head fell back into his chest. His breath caressed her exposed neck and he held her there for a while.

Every moment with him teased her into a fantasyland of what her life could have been if the circumstances were different. Though she was thankful for him staying, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could take him being there.

She turned in his arms and he looked down at her with a gentleness that made her hurt a bit less. His arms didn’t loosen on her but she hadn’t wanted them to and she lifted on her toes towards his mouth but it came with a hesitation. If she was deserving of what she wanted, she wasn’t sure.

Her fingertips crept the hemline of the dark athletic shirt he wore and she kissed his shaven neck through the bit of stubble present at that moment. His hands moved to her waist and squeezed, just enough to snap her out of the way her heart started to thump.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

“Don’t be but I think my lips might be a little nicer to kiss. What do you think?” his low voice rolled through his chest and she nodded in reply.

“Come here.” He lifted her chin, making it easier for her to reach him by ducking down and he kissed her with zero hesitation in the matter.

Though it had been a year since their lips had met, it all felt very familiar to her. Like nothing had changed, like she’d kissed him just the day before. He slotted so much together for her, and as he pulled her in with the deepening of the kiss, she molded to him. Enjoying every second even though she felt so guilty for it.

She grabbed his shoulders to improve the nearness between them. It was hard not to let herself feel the way she wanted him. Desired him like a craving much greater than anything else in her life.

Her lips left his slowly with the flutter of her eyes and she let herfingers slip through his thick dark hair. Basking in the brief moment of being able to touch him how she would if he was hers. His eyes stayed unwavering on her and he moved even closer to put a kiss on her forehead. She knew right then how much he loved her and it broke her to tears.

His arms wrapped around her shoulders in a hug and he attempted to comfort her. His hushes in her ear did nothing though because she knew that she could have nothing good in her life and James Dray was just too good.