Caveman (Wild Men 1)

The hell?

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“It’s complicated.” She pads over to me but stays standing by the bed. “Are you okay? I heard a shout and then voices… And then you were coughing.”

“I’m all right.” I sigh. “Ev, you have to tell me what’s wrong. This doesn’t have to do with that asshole, Blake, does it?”

“I told you. It’s complicated.”

Okay, this is driving me nuts. “Maybe I’m not as stupid as you seem to think. Try to explain. Use simple words, if you like.”

She turns away, her face crumbling. “Please, Micah. Not now.”

I shake my head, both mystified and angry. “Why won’t you talk to me, Ev? What’s the story with Seth?”

“Micah...”

Fuck this. “Why do you run away whenever he’s around? And don’t give me again the bullshit about being concerned with his safety. Did he do something to you?” I’d give my right arm for Seth, but if he did something to her... The nightmare still lingers in the back of my mind, making me jittery.

“No.” She shakes her head vehemently. “Seth did nothing wrong.”

“Then what?” My head is pounding, and I press the heels of my hands into my eyes. “Dammit. Fuck.”

“Hey…” She sits by my side. “You have a headache, huh?”

No shit. It’s like a trio of jackhammers pummeling the insides of my skull.

“Pills?” she asks.

“Won’t help.”

She says nothing for a while. Then she puts her hands at the back of my neck, digging her thumbs into the muscles, and I hiss. It hurts like hell, but at the same time it feels so damn good. Her small hands are surprisingly strong.

“Where did you learn to do this?” I groan as she massages a particularly sore spot.

“My mom sometimes gets tension headaches. I paid attention to her physiotherapist when he massaged her back then, so I could do it for her at home.”

I swallow a moan of pleasure as she presses deep into clenched muscles, unlocking them. “Feels great,” I manage.

“Your back is a mess.” She pushes her thumbs into the base of my neck, and I jolt, electric pain shooting down my spine.

“Ow.”

“Your muscles are hard like stones. Could be a reason why you can’t sleep well. That and the nightmares.”

I say nothing.

“What were you dreaming about?”

I don’t wanna talk about this. But she won’t talk to me unless I talk to her, and I’m hiding a lot from her already, so fuck it. “Foster care.”

Just two words. There. Was it easy? Nope. I feel as if I’ve just had to break two of my teeth and spit them out.

I don’t talk about my nightmares to anyone. Ever. Not even to Seth who happens to be the one to wake me up every time. Or to Zane who has given me all I have. So why am I telling her?

Her hands stop their massaging. I frown, but before I turn to look at her, she slips her arms around me and rests her cheek between my shoulder blades.

“What happened to you there?”