Separately Together

Chapter Twenty-Three: 2/2

It was just a sprain, but I did have to wear a boot and was advised to stay off of it as much as possible until it could heal properly. Harley has been fussing over me all afternoon, even after I insured him, I was alright, well at least physically fine. Mentally ...

Not so much.

I still felt him holding my wrist so tight I could move, putting me back to when he had me pressed up against his truck. I had gone to therapy, I thought I was behind all of this, or at least behind the majority of all of this. I guess him coming back around has lit everything back on fire. he was determined to burn my life away.

Harley peeks his head through the crack in the door and when he sees that I'm away e pushes the barrier forward, exposing his full body to me. He must have just got off of work because he was still in a white button-up and black pants.

A streak of jealousy goes through me, because everyone he works with gets to see him look like a model every day. He probably has all of the woman up there wrapped around his finger. Begging to be noticed by him.

I shake my head trying to shake the awkward feeling from my bones, it wasn't a pleasant ne, it made me twist uncomfortably. I don't think I've ever felt that way over a human being.

"You alright?"

"For the hundredth time, I am fine." It made me think about the time Gale recognized the term and told me that I was anything but fine. I still haven't told anyone that I finished the book I wrote on my spare time. Harley had called Mrs. Debra and told her I sprung my ankle, so she has excused me from work until I'm better. Without my book to write in, my work to bake in I didn't really have much to do up here in this bed.

I needed to find a good book to pass the time, my life has just been so chaotic these past few months I haven't had a need for anything to excite me.

My life was a book on its own.

"My bad for being a good boyfriend." Harley smiles at his own joke, he has taken up his act as my own personal comedian as of lately, I think he can sense that my spirits are in the dumps.

Dixon has spent the last two nights at Liz's, but she should be coming home soon because tomorrow is her first day at school.

I narrow my eyes at him, and he just holds up his hands show casing that he was just picking. I do crack a sad smile towards the end, I couldn't help it. Even though I felt like everything single thing in my lie was going down heel, Harley always made it seem like everything was worth it.

"No one's here. The jigs up." I joke and roll my eyes shifting in the bed to get more comfortable.

"Friend then." He says it as a whisper with almost a hint of ... disappointment. I couldn't be reading that right. I shove the thought back into the back of my brain because the last time I let my thoughts get to me I ended up having a dream that I had no business dreaming, that lead me into a position that made him feel uncomfortable in his own house and I can't handle him taking a weeklong hiatus on me right now.

"Good news." Harley says as he sits down at the edge of my bed. I pull the sheets u a little remembering that I'm in nothing but a tank top and my underwear. I blush at the thought of being so bare in front of him and him not even knowing. That thought doing something to me, making me feel warm all over my body.

It made me feel like I was in control of something, I was in control of something for once. If I just pulled the cover down just a little, he would see my nipples peeking through the thin fabric.

"Yeah?" I say but it comes out a little more breathless than it should have, and I cough to cover up the mistake. He eyes me something smoldering in his eyes that he masks really quick, so quick I wasn't sure if I had saw it to begin with.

"Ben, he cut off all of The Forefathers business allies. They are essentially out of ways to make money. One step at a time even though I want to go over there and rip his gad damn throat out." He stares off at the wall and I see him return to a dark place. Were all of those deadly emotions just for me? He was doing this all of me, changing who he was to keep me safe.

Giving up a piece of himself I don't want to see go just yet.

I knew The Voiceless was ruthless and with Harley being second command he was eventually having to get his hands dirty but a part of me was grieving this before it was even taken.

"Let Ben handle it this time, Harley." I whisper willing him to listen to me this one time and preserve himself.

"I promised you." he hangs his head before peaking his green eyes my way and I see so much hurt in them that I let the cover fall and crawl over to him. Needing to physically reassure him that this wasn't his fault, tank top forgotten.

It wasn't even important anymore.

"And you'll keep that promise."

I come to him and climb onto his lap carefully, straddling him. I hug him close, and I feel his chest start to heave up and down. Not from the hurt I seen in his eyes two second ago but something else entirely.

It was a hunger fueling his heartbeat to increase and a need that was edged into him so deep that it pushed a warning through those perfect lips.

Maybe I didn't intend for this to get so heated but those words coming out of his mouth made a switch flip so fast I could have got whiplash. My whole-body lighting up with the thoughts his words made run rampage in my head.

"Sweets don't move..." He tenses his jaw and locks his hands to my waist, preventing himself from letting them roam. "Unless you want me to turn those dreams into reality."

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