Echoes in the Storm by Max Henry

Author:Max Henry [Henry, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
Publisher: Max Henry
Published: 2017-09-11T16:00:00+00:00

Duke

“Duke. You’re scaring me.”

Cammie’s eyes go wide as she starts to back away from where I kneel frozen in my fear. I’ve ruined her. Wrecked what we had before it started.

“Cam …”

“Thank Christ,” she sighs. “Talk to me, would you?”

I pat the pockets of my jeans, ignoring my rapidly deflating hard-on, and pull my phone out. Slamming my finger across the screen, I switch the torch on and lay it between us.

“What’s going on?” Her gaze flicks from the phone to me, before her face falls.

I see the puzzle come together in her softened eyes: my fear of sleeping in the open, the fact I make sure she goes to bed before me, the fact this isn’t the first time I’ve used my phone as a torch when it wasn’t really necessary.

“You’re afraid of the dark,” she says on a whisper.

I’ve never told anyone, and for good reason. What kind of a man is crippled by a fear that only small children keep?

My mum—she knows about the nightmares. My brother—he knows I don’t sleep well, but not why. At home, my bed is pushed into a corner of the room with no windows adjacent, the tallboy beside the bed so it boxes me in. At home, I cope, however miserably.

“I didn’t think when we left the house.”

“It’s okay.” She scoots forward, setting her hands on my thighs.

The simple gesture grounds me, the basic action of her touch doing so much for me right now that I don’t think she could possible comprehend how amazing she is. I literally made this woman come and now I’m an anxious mess, yet all she thinks about is how I feel.

“I’m sorry.” She opens her mouth to say something in return, yet I silence her with a raised hand. “I know. Pathetic, huh?” God, what does she think of me? “I wasn’t always like this.”

Lame comeback, Duke.

“Since the incident overseas?” she asks, her hands massaging my thighs.

I nod. “It was night time when they attacked. I guess the fact they caught us off guard, hit the place by surprise, triggered something in my subconscious. I’ve been told by doctors in the past that my brain made a connection to the fear of the attack and the fact it was during the night. That’s why I’m afraid now when it’s not light; I can’t see the threat my brain tells me should be there.”

“Ghosts,” she whispers. “You were looking for ghosts from your past.”

“Pretty much.”

Cam takes my phone in her hand, careful not to obstruct the light. She rises to her feet, one hand outstretched toward me. I take it, allowing her to coax me up as well.

“We can’t keep doing this,” she says as she guides us toward the house. “Letting our pasts dictate who we are today.”

“How do you change everything about who you are, though?” She has a life outside of her fear to feed off, to give her strength. Me? All I am is the broken vet who can’t hold down a job to save himself.

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