Little Dark One

68 - love

Keira

I woke to soft light filtering through cracks in the curtains. Tommy's warm body was wrapped around me to the point of near suffocation but I've never felt safer.

I pressed a gentle kiss to the hollow of his throat and slipped out of his iron hold without waking him. I knew him well enough to know he barely slept when I was gone if he even slept at all...

I was equally exhausted, but unlike Tommy, my overindulging in alcohol to numb the pain caused me to fall into deep dreamless blackouts.

We both needed to rest and rebuild emotionally after all the trauma we've been through.

I padded into the bathroom and hummed in appreciation to find the tiles were warmed under my bare feet.

I skipped taking a shower and getting ready for the day. I had no intention of leaving Tommy's bedroom today.

I paused with foaming toothpaste dripping down my chin when I heard him thrashing around in the sheets and calling out my name desperately.

"Shit," I muttered, rushing to rinse the toothpaste out and get back to him before he panicked.

He had just frantically jumped out of bed when I opened the bathroom door. His wild eyes locked with mine and he crossed the room in three long strides, picking me up and burying his sleepy face in my neck.

"Keira." He exhaled against my skin in relief.

"I'm right here," I whispered as I wrapped my legs around his waist tight and tangled my fingers in his hair soothingly.

We stood there for what felt like minutes, just melting together until he finally moved towards the bathroom sink without letting me go.

"It doesn't feel real," he admitted under his breath. "I feel this weight in my chest constantly, afraid you're going to disappear and never come back."

He sat me down on the bathroom counter and stood between my legs, refusing to loosen his desperate hold on me. My heart squeezed for this anxiety he was experiencing.

We had a long road ahead of fixing the damage that was done. But at least we would be together, as a team.

He was ruthless and violent, but he was also incredibly loyal and caring. He would risk anything for me and I would do the same for him. We were an unlikely pair, but somehow we found each other in the darkest of times and became each other's light in the black.

"I'm never going to leave you," I whispered, pulling his face from the crook of my neck so he could look into my eyes and recognize the sincerity in my words.

"You can't make that kind of promise yet," he shook his head in denial. "There are things you don't know about me. A lot actually."

"I don't care about the things I don't know, Tommy. Nothing is going to change how I feel about you, your past is just that. The past. All I'm concerned about is the man you'll choose to be with me moving forward."

As I said the words, I realized how true they actually were. I knew who he was when I fell for him, and maybe it was because I was and still am just as fucked up inside, but somewhere along the way I realized those past mistakes and traumas didn't have to define our future.

We could accept the choices we made back when we were forced to make them. We could move on.

"We need to talk about the night before you were taken. You need to understand why I am the way I am." He murmured carefully.

"I know. Let's go back to bed."

He nodded solemnly, clearly overthinking the heavy secrets he was about to reveal.