Nailed Down: The Complete Series by Bliss Chelle & Butler Eden

Author:Bliss, Chelle & Butler, Eden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bliss Ink LLC
Published: 2019-08-15T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

Three a.m. was the witching hour. Gin never slept then, something she’d clued me in on the first time I’d recovered from a bender on her sofa and woke up to find her out on her front porch drinking coffee.

“Foster asshole number six used to come in at three a.m., drunk, mad at the world, and looking for a punching bag. We’d have to see who was smartest, fastest, and quiet enough to avoid his fists,” she’d explained like it was a fact that she recalled, not a bad memory that kept her up at night.

“You always won?” I’d asked her, still drunk.

“Still here, ain’t I?”

At 3:05, I found Gin in the living room, sock-footed, with her ankles crossed as she sat in front of the roaring fireplace. Her eyes were unfocused as she watched the flames, and I moved behind her, exhaling only when she didn’t flinch as I slid an arm around her waist to hold her. “I’ve missed you,” I whispered in her ear as I inhaled the sweetness of her red hair.

When there was no response, I brushed the hair away from her neck and pressed my lips to the soft spot just below her ear. She shivered through a long sigh.

“Ginger—”

“Stop,” she said, cutting me off.

Anger pulsed from her, and something sharp splintered in my gut. This would take more than an apology. Seemed that kiss I remembered giving her had done more damage than I thought. But what else had I’d done? Run my mouth about my stupid ex in the hospital, yeah, but she had to know that was the medicine talking. Gin knew me. She knew what she meant to me even if I hadn’t found the balls to admit how I felt. This reaction? Her anger? It should have dimmed by now.

“Do you know how badly you hurt me?”

I ran my fingertip over the curve of her shoulder. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

I knew my getting shot would set us back some. Watching fellow soldiers take a bullet had done something to me; I couldn’t imagine how it would’ve felt if it had been Gin instead of me. That would’ve been a heartache and a guilt I never would’ve overcome.

“Scare me?” she whispered, but not in that sweet, gentle way either. “Are you shitting me right now?”

I tightened my arms around her waist, because we were going to hash this shit out and move on with our lives. Get back to the sweet spot we were heading toward. That kiss was the first step. I wanted more. A hell of a lot more. “Well, yeah. I mean, I know how it feels to watch someone take a bullet. I think we…”

She wiggled out of my arms and spun to face me. “Do you love me?” she asked.

“I…” Damn it. I hadn’t whispered those words to another soul since Trudy ripped my heart into a million pieces with her cheating ways. “I…” I repeated with the words hanging on the tip of my tongue.

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