Beauty in the Ashes

“Very,” she giggled, wiggling around.

I smoothed my fingers through her hair.

I didn’t pay much attention to the movie, instead focusing on the way her body felt against mine, and the soft orchestra of her sighs and breaths. This was what happiness looked like—being with the person you loved. I wished I felt like this all the time. But eventually the self-doubt and anger and all the things I wanted to shut out became too much.

Addiction was a fucking poison, suffocating your mind and body. It took all control. I knew I didn’t even have it as bad as others, but I still struggled.

Even now, as I lay with her, the overwhelming need was in the back of my mind. It urged me to go back to my apartment and let the drugs seep through my veins—to numb me from the world.

“Are you okay?” Sutton asked suddenly, raising to look at me. Her dark hair tumbled forward, tickling my face.

“I’m great,” I forced a smile. “Just enjoying the movie.”

She studied me for a moment and then returned to her previous position. “Okay,” she sighed.

She didn’t believe me, but she wasn’t going to push me.

I wasn’t sure if she let it go because she loved me, she had given up on me, or she was scared of me. She’d seen my outbursts and no doubt wanted to avoid that at all costs.

I glided my fingers down her back and she shivered. “That feels good,” she murmured.

I did it again.

In turn, she started drawing something on my chest.

I closed my eyes, humming in contentment.

In the back of my mind though, I kept thinking, a love like this can’t last forever.

CHAPTER 25

Sutton

We spent the next two days in my apartment, wrapped in each other’s arms.

It was easily the best two days of my life.

Until someone had the balls to knock on my door and pull me from bed.

“Don’t go,” Caelan grabbed my arm, trying to pull me back in to bed. “They’ll go away eventually.”

They knocked again.

“Not anytime soon it seems.” I rolled further away and out of the bed, fumbling around for some clothes. I found Caelan’s shirt first and pulled it on. It was long enough to cover my bottom half as well, so I ceased searching for bottoms.

When the person knocked again, I yelled

, “Coming!”

“You could be coming in another way right now if you’d get your ass back in bed,” Caelan commented.

I grinned and rolled my eyes as I backed away. “Later.”

My feet tapped against the cold wood floors and I shivered as I unlocked the latch. I smiled over at Caelan lying in my bed before opening the door.

When I opened it I expected to see Daphne, or Frankie, maybe even Cyrus. What I didn’t expect to see was tousled dark hair framing a pair of hazel eyes. His build was stocky, filling up the doorway, and the scent of his cologne was overwhelming.

“Marcus,” I gasped.