Electric Love

Chapter Eighteen

~Rayne's P.O.V~

Words wouldn't do the description of my view any justice. I'd never been on a romantic date like this before in my entire life. Collin's version of a date was having me cook dinner and him picking me apart at the table while we ate. He wasn't like that at first. At first, I'd even go as far as saying he put forth some effort. Dinner at a nice restaurant, going out for ice cream, and once upon time he even took me ice skating. It wasn't until after we had made our relationship official, that he stopped with the kind gestures.

Buying me flowers just because it was Wednesday, taking me out dancing just to show me off, him attempting to cook dinner for me but causing the fire alarm to go off before he could even really get to the actual cooking. All of that was just to grab my attention. The kind gestures and sweet whispers were all a part of the plan to reel me in. He wanted to be the nice guy he portrayed on the outside for everyone else to see in the beginning. And his acting skills were remarkable really if we're being honest here. I fell for every single part of it, hook, line, and sinker. I overlooked what I'd come to realize were obvious red flags. Once he had me, sunk his talons into me, I was his in the way a car belonged to a person. I was his property and a burden—an embarrassment to his name. He felt he didn't need to keep trying to win me over because by then I was his. Not his girlfriend—no. His property is definitely a more accurate term for me. I was an object, a trophy.

Depression sunk in after a year. After a year, I finally realized he was not the man I thought he was. Everything that glittered was not in fact gold and I was fucked. I would have an internal fight every single day just to force myself out of bed, and even then, I did so long enough to make sure the house was to his liking, and to grab whatever food I could gorge myself on while he was out. I gained weight, I was miserable and anyone with half a brain could tell just how miserable I was. My obvious weight gain and overall lack of care towards my appearance only made his anger turn more violent as the time went on. I no longer made him look good, I was disgusting, and he was ashamed of me. I was worthless without him, essentially nothing without him. So, in turn, he threw his tantrums by using my body as a punching bag, sometimes worse.

This date with this god-like creature, however, blew any romantic gesture I'd ever received, out of the water. The scene was romantic and private. A cozy little world away from everything and everyone, just us two in our own bubble of comfort. From the lush green grass under my feet, to the thick blanket laying on it, complete with comfortable looking throw pillows. From the spread of string lights and paper lanterns lighting up the evening sky, to the cute wicker picnic basket and the two empty glasses nestled against a bucket of chilled Sauvignon Blanc. This was a romantic first date, one I had never had the luxury of experiencing in my entire life. One that I wasn't entirely sure that I deserved.

Yet another realization of just how much mental damage Collin inflicted on me.

I let my eyes take everything in, my jaw slack in awe. I couldn't seem to wrap my head around a couple of things. One being, how he was able to pull off my perfect idea of date given how busy his day seemed to be since the early hours of the morning. The other being, why he wanted to take me of all women, a lowly bartender at that, out on a date in the first damn place. Regardless of his reasoning, I was thankful and the view in front of me rendered me speechless. I wanted to cry yet all I could do was turn around to face him and with a gentle caress of his jaw, lean in to brush my lips against the light stubble. He wasted no time lifting my chin with his thumb and index finger, pulling me in closer to lay a bruising kiss on my glossed lips. Just a kiss from Kaine could leave my heart damn near thumping out of my chest, and a parade of butterflies fluttering around my stomach.

"Come sit down with me." He murmured, his deep voice husky, lust clear. The transfer of my lip gloss evident on his mouth. I used my thumb to wipe it off and then I did what he said and walked with him to the comfy throw pillows strategically placed on the blanket like seat cushions.