Paint Me Saved ✓ Book 1

28. When eyes do the talking

Leonardo

For a soldier, combat-related traumas were as common as injuries to a kid learning how to ride a bicycle. Minor injuries to the body would heal in time but those resultant from witnessing the loss of one's brotherhood, of men who swore to protect each other would remain branded in memory.

No amount of therapy or talk would erase the stench of burnt flesh or the weak lament of the dying. No sound or smell would ever hold the power to camouflage it. At least that was my assumption.

Since Zemira discovered the truth about Tag, things changed for me. I no longer carried the rock over my chest, no longer dragged the weight of lost lives on my command. The chains that always pulled me back into the wall of guilt, broke the day I confessed.

One other thing shifted - the equation of us. Our relationship altered from being friends to a state where we didn't require words to understand each other. Since the day we addressed our secrets, our hearts intertwined, our bones fused. Everything Zemira experienced; in a deep un-narratable form, I felt too.

Kiera's birthday party provided us with a distraction. It made us move out of the nest we built, staying in each other's embrace.

"I kinda have to say, Kiera mellowed down quite a bit," Zemira said, smiling at the surrounding.

We gazed through the party décor, the pink overall aesthetics with gold and black laces around the corners and balloons till where eyes could travel.

"Glad that we came for a mellow one. What were her un-mellow birthday versions like?"

Zemira eyed me till a smile broke on my face. She always knew how to put forth that inquisitive expression, one with her single hooked brow and a crooked smile. "Oh, you don't want to know about the un-mellow version. It starts with orgies and ends with mile-high clubs."

I tapped on my chest, my lips curling up. "A woman after my own heart."

The soft glow on her face, her warmth exuding kind eyes and her overall joy, whenever I countered her was a sight I would hold onto dearly.

"Then marry her already," she whispered, leaning closer. "Who's stopping you?"

I had to hold my breath from inhaling her rose and vanilla scent. It would only intoxicate me further into the world of her charm.

"I'd marry her, but then her husband would mind." I moved us into a secluded corner. "Also, there's this other woman that I'm interested in. She is a whirlpool of desire set on a course to take me."

"Take you? What are you, a target?" Her eyes glimmered. The emerald dress she wore tightened its hold over her chest.

"Yes, a target you seem hell-bent on destroying."

I surely wasn't talking sense. How could I, when the woman in front of me captivated me with her smile? 

Zemira made her way into my world like tricking drops of water falling on a pebble, molding it for a smoother shape and form. I was the pebble, rough around the edges when she found me. Her charm and kindness polished my abrasions.

Kiera waved and call us, breaking my trail of thoughts. Trotting over to our side, her heels the size of Mount Everest tapped hard against the marble floor, resonating into the surrounding.

"So glad both of you could make it." She curled her arm around Zem and with another, she entrapped me like a predatory plant dangling its limbs to catch everything.

Thrown over Kiera's shoulders, Zem and I shared a look. Our eyes remained locked, meshed with our hands over the birthday girl's back as she continued her rant.