By the time I’m done, I’m looking back at Savage, startled to find him looking straight at me. His eyes run down my body, lingering on my exposed breasts, and then he shuts his eyes tightly, sounding pained when he says, “Why? Fucking why, Skye? I was so fucking close…”
I don’t know what he means, but I feel conflicted, hurt. Memories pick at the scabbed wounds I’ve tried so hard to heal, but I can’t help it when I say, “You betrayed me—”
“Yeah,” he cuts in, nodding once. “Yeah.”
I don’t bother saying more.
Because it’s done.
It happened.
There’s no point lingering when he’s here, in front of me now,alive.
I leave the tub, watching him as he keeps his eyes squeezed shut, like he’s determined not to look at me. I stop in front of him, and I’m not looking over his giant body. I’m not counting the scars or lingering on the familiar jagged one running down his butchered face. It’s his eyes I’m chasing. It’s his stare I’ve longed for years to feel on mine.
I whisper, “Hunt—”
“Don’t say my name down here,” he growls sharply. “You can’t, Skye. It’s a rule.”
I swallow. “I hate the other name. I hatehim.”
His jaw tightens, and still, those eyes remain shut. “I hate him, too.”
“So, open your eyes and let me see you—therealyou.”
And he does.
He opens his eyes to look at me, but Hunter’s not there. It’s just darkness and anger and hate and emptiness. “Thisisthe real me.”
Is it?
Or is he hiding from me again?
"Do you remember," I whisper now, holding back my emotion, "throwing rocks in the ocean when we were little?"
His body trembles as he stiffens a nod. "I remember."
"Close your eyes."
He does.
"Can you picture the bay before us now? How big it felt to us? How small we were as we watched all those sailors come through?"
"I remember."
"Do you remember what you told me once when you took me back there when we were older?"
He doesn't answer, but I answer for him. "You told me we were never small, we just needed to learn to wander."
He doesn't blink or breathe. "Why are you telling me this, Skye?"
I inch to him and raise my hand slowly. I hesitantly place it over his chest where his heart is. His skin is blazing hot, but...familiar.
"That's how I feel right now," I explain quietly. "Like this place is big, and we're small, but...we just need to wander."
If he remembers that chat, he will understand what I mean.
That it's a code.