I Dare You (Truth And Dare Duet 2)

I love you.

My eyes fluttered close. Our breathing evened out, but our bodies stayed connected. I must have drifted off to sleep, because the next time I was blinking my eyes open, I felt a warm cloth rubbing my skin.

I smiled, stupid and sleepy, at Maddox. He was cleaning off the mess he left on me. I curled on my side, as he tugged the blankets around me. His thumb brushed across my jaw, and his face was devoid of all the anger I had experienced before.

He looked at me like my Maddox used to. The same tender expression on his face. That soft look in his blue eyes. For me. Always for me.

His gaze lingered on my throat, and unconsciously, I brought my hand to it. My fingers slid over something cool…

My eyes widened, and I gasped, sitting up.

Our dreamcatcher.

My heart thudded. I clenched the necklace in my hand and choked back a sob. Maddox forced my fingers opened, and he slid his thumb over the dreamcatcher.

“Don’t lose it. Don’t break it. Because if I ever take it again, there won’t be another second chance. I’ll burn it. I’ll burn us.”

Maddox wasn’t talking about the dreamcatcher. He was talking about… himself.

I gripped his wrist, when he tried to step back. “Don’t leave.”

He shook his head slowly. “Go to sleep, Lila. I don’t want your Pops to catch me here in the morning. Since I just dicked down his granddaughter, hard, while he peacefully slept down the hall.”

Oh. Yeah. Shit. We just did… that.

A small giggle escaped past my lips.

He cocked his head to the side. “Damn. My dick must be that good. I just made you giggle.”

I watched, as he climbed out of my window, and closed it behind him. Falling back into bed, I closed my eyes and finally… breathed.

We hadn’t solved all our issues yet. There were many things that were still very much problematic, and we still needed to talk.

But, for the first time in months, I fell asleep with a smile and hope, flaring my chest.

Two months later

If five months ago, someone had asked me if this would be my life, I probably would have laughed in their faces. I didn’t exactly know where life would take me when I dropped out of Harvard, almost four months ago. Lila and I broke up, and I came back to Manhattan with my parents and low expectations.

And now?

Well… my relationship with my parents was not perfect, but we were cordial and respectful. We, somehow, found a middle ground. All the years of misunderstandings and miscommunication, all the hurt… it somehow blended together, and we realized that the only way to break through that cycle was to address it.

So, once a week, we did family therapy.

My parents and I spent our time, fixing that broken thread between us.

My mother became my mom.

My father? Well… he was still dying.

And Lila?

My little dragon. Fierce and beautiful. Brave and passionate.

Lila didn’t give up this time. Oh no, she fought me, teeth and claws, until I had no choice but to let her into my life again. She fought for me.

She had been right. Again.

We turned something beautiful into something ugly, without even realizing we were the reason for all the hurt. Not her past or mine. Not Christian or Bianca. It was all… us.

Our stubbornness. Our pride. Our need to protect each other in our own messy ways. There was an angry beast inside of me, ugly and vindictive. I was feeding it, unconsciously. And Lila? She had a fucked-up way of rationalizing things.

I regretted all of what I’d done. Ripping that dreamcatcher away? That was our breaking point. Hurting her deliberately over Bianca? That was where I fucked up.

I was going to tell her the truth in the hospital… but when she left again, walked away, without a second glance… something snapped in me. The echo was loud, the sound harsh in my own ears, as she ripped my heart from my chest and took it with her.

I hurt her.

I hurt me.

Giving her back our dreamcatcher was the beginning of fixing whatever we had broken between us. That night, I came to her with all my frustration, all the chaotic feelings inside of me. Lila embraced them… she held me, while I took from her. Again and again.

When she fell asleep with me still inside her, I stayed awake for hours. Just looking at her sleeping face. So beautiful. So trusting.

I hated what I had done to her…

So that night, I wrapped my pinky around hers and made another promise.

A solemn vow.

I pinky promise that….

“Hey, Baby.” She wrapped her arm around my waist, and her lips pressed against my shoulder blades.

“Garcia.”

She bit me through my shirt. “Coulter.”

“Chihuahua.”

“Poodle.”

Lila walked around and faced me. There was a tender smile on her face. The black circles under her eyes were gone. She looked healthier again… happier. Whole. Slaying like my favorite dragon. My only, little dragon.