ROT WITH ME

xix - swans

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Nine year old June watched, irises engulfed with utmost fascination for the creatures before her. Studying the slight curve in the necks of white feathery swans as they languidly moved across the shallow waters. The young girl wondered how quick it would be for their necks to snap in half. Imagined her fingers curling across its throat as she'd squeeze tightly till oxygen became a myth. Feeling the life slip away, like electricity buzzing through her fingers for a moment, then gone.

***

Rafe's brows knit together with inquisitiveness and concentration directed at her bruised knuckles. Reaching out and taking her hand in his own. 'What happened?' he asked quietly. Vehemently studying her injuries as though they were rubies and he were a jeweler.

June pulled back. 'Punching bag,' she lied smoothly. Shrugging.

He went quiet, words of doubt caught between his teeth.

'I wanted to try something new,' she added at his reluctance to accept her previous answer.

He sighed, flicking away his serpentine theories, and letting her off the hook for the time being. 'That doesn't explain why you weren't there when I woke up.'

'Am I meant to always be at your beck and call?

'That's not it, June. I was worried.'

'I'm a grown woman, Rafe. I can take care of myself.'

He pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes, lowering his voice. 'stop that.'

June blinked. 'Stop what?'

He removed his hands from his face, looking her straight in the eyes, it was agony. 'Playing hot and cold, one moment I think I have you, June. I think I'm yours and you're mine, but then the next you act as if we're complete enemies. Strangers even.'

'We're not dating,' she reminded him.

'Yes, I know that,' he said, slightly dejected. 'But I don't know if my feelings even mean anything to you, June but I really do like you and when you act like this, it hurts.'

June glanced away. His sudden outburst of affection in the form of words had startled her.

Rafe saw it just then and there, she was pushing him away on purpose.

'You know you can tell me anything, June.'

'Anything?' she repeated, slowly turning her head to look at him.

He regarded her with the most solemn expression he could muster. 'Anything,' he confirmed, hand slipping up her thigh in a way to reassure her. June placed her own hand on top of his, guiding it further up.

He watched her watch him, letting her take control as his hand left her thigh and approached her waist. 'Promise not to tell?' she whispered.

He paused, feeling weak beneath her penetrating stare, bewitched.

The moment dragged, till she stopped his hand under her heart, he remembered where they were. On his bed.

He cleared his throat, glancing back up, eyes colliding. Inhaling. Exhaling. 'I promise.'

June smiled, his expression softened at the sight.

She leaned in, pulling him into an embrace, he welcomed it as her head rested in the nook of his shoulder. 'You really like me. Don't you, Rafe?' she murmured into his ear, breath kissing the nape of his neck.

He would let her ruin him if she so desired, merely feeling the way her chest rose and fell beneath him made it hard for Rafe to think rationally.

He pulled away, holding her by the shoulders, silently peering at her expression. Seeing if she felt the same way. But when a corner of her lips twitched, he released her, shaking his head while combing a hand through his hair. 'Don't be such a tease.'