Little Dark One

24 - surrender

Tommy

Touching her calmed me in ways not even the pool at midnight could. I never knew serenity was a real thing until I felt her. Something about Keira's delicate nature soothed the monster within me to a point of weakness. I accidentally told her that is what she was to me, I didn't mean for the words to slip out but I lose all self control around her. When she touches me I let my anger, demons and bad intentions take a back seat. My feelings for her were barreling down the track like a freight train, promising to annihilate me. 

Her serenity combined with my feelings for her created a massive blind spot any one of my enemies would kill to take advantage of. They would take her to lure me out, hurt her to manipulate me and even kill her to destroy me. All this and I still kept her close. The fact that I was allowing myself to have a weakness like her meant a lot, and I hope she picked up on that.

It was getting late and I could tell she was getting tired. I led her upstairs to our bedrooms and she followed quietly. I was dreading leaving her but I knew she was exhausted and probably still a bit hungover.

"If I ask you something, will you give me an honest answer?" She broke the silence with an uneasy tone.

I turned to face her as we approached our opposite doors. "Depends."

She rolled her eyes at my vague answer and it sparked dirty thoughts. I wanted to make her feel so good she rolls her eyes in uncontrollable euphoria.

"Did you kill my ex today?" Her anxious question snapped me out of my fantasies so fast I got internal whiplash.

I stared at her in a loss for words. I didn't want to lie to her, she was too intelligent for me to get away with it anyway. I settled for a simple truth. "No."

"Don't lie to me Tommy, I can't take it!" She yelled, advancing on me with fire in her eyes. Ironic. "I saw the news. The top floor of the hotel blew up at the exact time I was supposed to meet him..."

"I didn't say I didn't try, he got away before I was successful!" I yelled right back, angry at her for bringing this up in the first place. I was still livid over the fact that he got away.

"So you blew up the hotel?" She demanded, standing before me with her small hands on her hips.

"I had no choice! I did it for you." I bellowed, I was beginning to lose my cool. I almost missed the slight flinch my raised voice caused.

"Don't you dare tell me you murdered innocent people for me." She winced in emotional pain at the thought.

"No one that died in that explosion was innocent Keira, I can promise you that." I growled, pointing a strong finger at her. A single tear slipped down her cheek and she wiped it away quickly.

My arms flew up in frustration and she cowered back and flinched again, like I was going to hit her. When she realized she was safe from my fists she exhaled in relief and leaned back against her door. Did she really think I was going to hit her? I've never hit a woman and I never would.

"What was that?" I cocked my head at her, stepping closer so I could look her directly in the eyes when I confronted her about this.

"What." She avoided my eye contact, and shrugged like she had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

"You thought I was going to hit you." I didn't phrase it as a question because it wasn't one. I new the answer already.

She played up her innocent act and shook her head at the idea. "No, I didn't."

"You flinched, I saw you." I pushed and I could tell she was getting restless. Her eyes darted around the hallway at anything but me. I took another step towards her and she began getting fidgety. She was hiding something. "Tell me the truth." I demanded.