Hate You - LN

Bonus - Lando

I wake to Dev moving beside me in the bed. Since Harry's release she's been sleeping at my place and I'm grateful for it. Of course, if she wanted to go back to her apartment I wouldn't stop her. I'd just ask to sleep on her couch. As much as we both seem to get the feeling that the worst is behind us, especially her, I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't worried sick out of my mind at the thought of Harry finding her again.

She's told me about why he came to find her again, the money she refuses to touch in her account after selling the house she almost died in. She told me about what she remembers of that day, the call to Charles, how she thought it was Lorenzo she was calling. And how all of her brothers made her a promise that something like that would never happen again to her.

Well, I've joined in on that promise. If I can help it, there will never be another scratch on her body, bruise or insult inflicted on her by that man. I dreamt some nights of what it would be like to beat him like he beat her. what it would feel like to have his nose crunch to pieces under my fist, ribs crack under my boot.

But acting on that anger would not change the past, and Dev seeing me like that wouldn't help her.

I don't know if I am capable of being so angry that I would beat someone to a pulp. But if I was ever to be so angry, it would be at someone who hurt those I cared about. And Dev is at the top of that list.

She moves again in the bed beside me and I lift the sheets to move closer to her. In my daze I feel her breathe, feel the movement of her head on the pillow. It's been hard for her to sleep peacefully since coming here after Harry found her at her apartment. But sometimes being close enough to her skin is enough to calm her. Feeling not alone, even if it's just her body that feels it and not knowing in her head.

Awake now I hold her lightly to my side, wanting to provide comfort but not wake her in case it passes. But then I hear her breathing increase, the sharp outline of her nose in the moonlight scrunching up. then her head thrashes to the side and a whimper escapes her lips.

Instantly I lift myself half up so my elbow is propping up my upper body and I lock my other arm around her waist to gently shake her awake.

"Dev," she whimpers again. "Dev wake up."

She flinches awake and I let her sit up and take in the room around her, taking in reality.

I drift my hand to her back and she flinches when my fingers brugh the material of my t-shirt that she wore to bed. "You're safe, you're with me, not in that house." I hesitate for a moment, not taking my hand away but not bringing it closer to her either.

She turns toward me, her eyes wide and chest heaving. "I'm sorry."

I shake my head and slide my hand further across her back under the material of the skirt. When she relaxes into the touch instead of flinching, I cup my hand around her side and guide her back down to the bed into my arms. "Don't apologize."

"I keep waking you up."

I move so I can pull her into my chest and she curls into it, wrapping one arm around my back. I'm not wearing a shirt so where her fingers splay on my skin, goosebumps rise as if my very body is drawing itself closer to her.

"Don't ever apologize for that, don't apologize for anything Dev. I don't expect your demons not to haunt you. I love you for them, and the person you are despite them."

I pull her into me and she grasps me tighter.

For the rest of the night as she lightly snores I don't let go of her and when we wake in the morning my arm is asleep from where it lay pinned underneath her head. But we haven't moved from where I held her, and from where she held me a few hours ago when the moon dominated the sky.

And damn it. I want to wake up like this every damn day.