Strong For Too Long Trilogy ✔️

13. What A Dark Romance

CHAPTER 13: What A Dark Romance

"You cannot hide from me."

The power in his voice, it was compulsive and it felt as if he engraved it into my bones, I was scorched.

I was holding back an untameable whimper from how touched I was by his words but his last sentence made me feel caged. Only he was in the cage with me, promising to be the fire I needed to bite away the cold.

I shake my head unconsciously, pulling back a little as I dart between both of his eyes, "It's too soon. You can't feel this, it's too soon."

I let out a kittenish sound when both his hands raise up for a moment in memorising my hips, the curve of my waist and he looks down as he does it too. He's slow, he takes his time as he watches me watch his hands. I take a sharp inhale when they pass the sides of my breasts, which were a simple 'A' cup and preferred, up my collarbone and down my arms. He continues back down, folding them underneath me again but, he's pulled me even closer to him.

"My father told me it's how my mother felt at the beginning too. Their relationship was intense too. He couldn't keep his hands off her. He could barely sleep. His duty to this organisation was easily dispersible because he saw a purpose more worthy of killing, of fighting for his country. He fought with Pierce just as I fight with Tobias when it comes to you." He swallows, when speaking of Pierce. Or so I thought, but his eyes would shine in recognition of his parents and that the men in his family have a tendency to go to the extremes when it comes to that four letter word that I happen to fear. He continues, not recognising my pause of internal conflict.

"-Feeling so strongly about someone I've only known for less than two months. Don't tell me how to feel, Olive. This will build each and every day, you cannot stop me from wanting to keep my hands full with you." I take my hands off him now, but he doesn't move his away, rather he brings his other one underneath me, so I sit directly on his hands.

"You've never spoken about your parents before." It was a statement, not a question.

"They died when I was in my late teens. Something I'll tell you more about when the time comes." He whispers the last part and I swallow the slick bile back down my throat.

"But, my mother was the exact same. Dad wanted everything he could get from her, even as a kid I could see the impact, the toll on him if he wasn't with her, even for a measly hour. The toll I'm slowly starting to feel if I don't know where you are, Olive. He gave my mother time, but that doesn't mean he let her go, as I said, their connection was ecstatically intense." He remembers the 'back then' stage, while I listen. He slips both my hands around his neck, gesturing I play with the hair at his scalp, like he does to mine. I just keep my arms straight, looking away while he keeps his face, his eyes on me.

It feels as though it's so long when we don't talk anymore but rather he just...has his hands full of me, literally, in the water.

"Why are you fighting with Tobias over it?" I ask, checking the clock above him as my chin is tucked into his shoulder now, when I glance up, he's watching the storm.

"Because he believes I will only hurt myself more, as he knows you have something big up your sleeve. We've talked about it many times. Your mind works in unpredictable ways, Olive. One of the things I lo-" he was about to say it, looking down at me and smiling, shaking his head as he continues,

"-I like about you, but that makes you harder to see, invincible to my eyes. He thinks I'll lose you before I get to really have you." I blink twice, not confused but, rather just mauling over what could happen.

He changes his position, placing his legs bent up behind me and he smiles, nudging his head to lean back, I do so, slowly and leaning back on his legs. Only the second he lets go of under me, I stand slowly, "It's time to get out."