Grudge Match by Jessica Gadziala

Author:Jessica Gadziala [Gadziala, Jessica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-10-04T16:00:00+00:00

TEN

Adalind

I woke up before him, still nestled against his chest.

I spent the next fifteen minutes carefully inching away, not wanting to wake him up, finding that in sleep, his face was at peace. Not soft, because a man like him could never be soft. But at-ease.

I didn't want to take that away.

Besides, I got the feeling that he was not a man accustomed to much sleep, and that he likely needed some more of it.

So I carefully padded across the room, taking the clean shirt he had taken out for me that had fallen to the floor during our, ah, activities, and went into the bathroom to take a quick shower, dress, and make my way quietly back out to the kitchen to make coffee.

And maybe salivate over the view for a bit.

Though with the quiet apartment, and nothing to keep my mind occupied, it wandered.

I could imagine a lot of things. My mind was good at spinning crazy theories when I was watching an arc play out over a season of a show, sure I knew what way they were going to twist all the threads together.

But even with my imagination, I never could have come up with his story.

And maybe that was a good thing.

Because knowing that that kind of evil exists in the world - because, let's face it, for every dead Walt, there were a dozen ones still walking around creating terror - was making a heavy weight settle on my chest.

Maybe it was so strong because I knew someone who had faced that evil, who had suffered in a basement for two years, who was a map of scars because of it, who could have died time and time again.

And even through all that, he was a good man.

Was he necessarily well-adjusted? No. But considering all he had been through, it was a miracle he wasn't sitting in a corner rocking.

He had gotten out. He had struggled. But then he built something pretty great for himself. He was wealthy. He had power that he had never had all his life. And, whether he was aware of it or not, there was sweetness in him as well. Maybe I was the only one who got to see it, maybe something about my helpless situation that night brought it out of him, made him want to help me for all the times no one could help him. Hell, maybe he just didn't like seeing a woman hurt. Whatever the reason, he had shown me such goodness for someone who was not familiar with the sensation.

You're warm, Addy.

Those words had melted me.

I had been gooey inside until I fell asleep.

Even now, just remembering it, I felt the warm liquid feeling in my belly.

I wanted to be that for him too.

His warmth.

In a life of coldness.

I wanted to be able to offer him that.

I wasn't sure, though, if he would allow it, if maybe he would get a good night of sleep, then rethink allowing me to be in his life.

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