She gasps, rifling into a sitting position. “I was thinking the same thing.” She dances to her feet, her lively energy making my usually dull study seem infinitely more exciting. “I haven’t been on them since I was a child. Since you…built the walls.”
Discomfort nudges me in the gut, but I disguise it with a tight smile, patting the pocket of my jacket. “Good thing I have the key to the gate. No lock picking necessary.”
Looking like she wants to say more, she nods. “I’ll go get my coat.”
A few minutes later, I’m assisting her down the back steps of the house and into the wind. A breeze picks up the long strands of her hair, blowing them across her laughing mouth and once again, those three words lodge behind my jugular, aching to be let out. I keep them contained, however, guiding her into the courtyard surrounding my house. And for the first time, the sight of the walls make me uncomfortable, the nape of my neck tight.
Chloe looks at the high stone walls penning us in from all sides, then over at me, chewing on her bottom lip. “I was still thirteen when you started to build them. It was silly…but I convinced myself it was my fault. That my trespassing was the final straw.”
“In a way, it was,” I say, surprising myself.
Surprising Chloe, too. “How?”
“You…were the last good thing, the last genuine person I met before my family descended like vultures, picking me apart. And I guess I just wanted to let my hatred fester. If you came back, I never would have been able to do it.” My laughter is slightly uneven. “I was right, wasn’t I? You’re back here for one day and I’ve already…”
We stop at the gate the leads out to the cliffs. “You’ve already what, Sebastian?”
I force the words out, even though they leave me vulnerable. Flapping in the wind like a goddamn sheet on the drying line. “I don’t want to hate anymore.” I tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear, the softness of her expression making it difficult to breathe. “Jesus, look at the beauty I’ve been missing.” Possessiveness rises up inside of me, wrapping around each and every one of my organs. Squeezing them. “The walls have their use, though, don’t they? After all, I might need them to keep you locked in this time.”
In the fading of the sunlight, she studies me closely. “The walls can’t keep me in or out,” she whispers, playing a hand on the center of my chest. “They’re designed to keep you locked away. Not other people.”
Feeling exposed, I take the key out of my pocket and unlock the gate, pushing it open. We both stare through the archway to the wild cliffs beyond in silence.
“I’ve forgotten what I…what the world looks like on the other side of the walls.”
She threads her fingers through mine. “You’ll never know unless you go looking.”
We’re not talking about the physical walls anymore, but rather the emotional ones I’ve erected around my heart. The ones that only she can climb. And as we walk toward the edge of the cliff, long grass blowing around our ankles, I decide to let her. Or rather, I realize there is no choice. This girl was always destined to live inside my heart. There’s no shifting my fate, and Christ, why would I ever want to?
We stop in the spot where I held her five years before, when she was far too young for a man and I hadn’t yet become a jaded prick. A lot has happened in that time away from Chloe. A lot of disappointment and bitterness and anger, but looking down into her warm hazel eyes, it all falls away. The anger and resentment slides right off and it’s just me again, the young man who formed her trust—the trust that, thank God, drew her back to me in the present.
“Stay with me,” I rasp, leaning down to brush our lips together, the palm of my hand sliding down her spine, scooting her closer. Closer. Fuck. She can’t get close enough. “Chloe…”
Her eyes are already glazing over with need, her attention straying to my mouth. Heating considerably, her pupils expanding. “Every time you satisfy me, I only grow more eager for the next time. And the next time.” Her hum of arousal vibrates through me. “Where does it stop? I feel myself getting…consumed. By you. By us.”
“Let it happen,” I say, snaring her lips in a hard kiss, keeping her there with suction while I unbutton her coat with unsteady fingers, pushing the garment off her shoulders. “Do you understand me, little girl? You let it fucking happen. Are we going to bring each other to the brink of madness? Yeah. Yeah, I don’t think there’s a way to stop it. But just like when I caught you going over this cliff, I won’t let you hit the rocks below. Ever. You have to trust me.”