CHAPTER68
Why is he here? Is this real? Where did he come from?
I don’t care right now; I just feel like I’ve been pulled into the warmest warmth of my life, comforted and protected. I love that he’s around me. I need him around me, pulling me back from devastation, concealing me from the world.
Maybe I’m dreaming. I hope I’m not. I need him so badly right now.
“Bambina! What’s happened? Is it your mother?” His husky smooth voice is in my hair, in my ear, his warm breath on my cheek bringing back the calm and sense to my inner world. My sobbing calms at the feel of him. He’ll always be my life buoy, my lighthouse in the dark.
I shake my head, allowing my arms to creep around his waist, holding onto him tightly, clinging to the familiarity of his body and his skin against mine. I need him more than I need air right now.
He came. He’s here. He ignored me telling him not to come. “Give Me A Reason”. It was about why he shouldn’t come!
It doesn’t even surprise me, as Jake never follows the rules. I can’t even be angry with him, because he’s everything I want and need to pull me back from the darkness that almost consumed me moments before.
“Talk to me, Emma. You’re scaring me.” His voice is raspy, wavering, and I lift my wet face and swallow down my emotion. With genuine concern in his eyes, he’s looking at me in a way I’ve never had anyone look at me. He has no idea how he makes me feel, no idea how much he has changed every part of me and my world. I need him. I need his security, his calm reasoning and confidence, his way of making everything okay. My protector.
“You just missed the man who tried to rape me at eighteen. He reminded me that I’ll never be able to match him,” I blurt out painfully, unsure why I’m even telling him this. I just need to. Because he’s really here. I think it’s shock, and it just comes out without filter as I begin to shake.
“What?” His jaw tightening, his face breaks into something I never expected to see on him: pure, undiluted fury. He looks terrifying with instant aggression as my words connect with his brain.
“Did he hurt you, Emma?” he snarls, and the air around us is immediately charged with electricity emanating from his pores. I don’t recognize this version of Jake. I nod, unable to say anymore, sure I must look exactly like Sophie did when she admitted her father abused her. Jake curses and lets me go, his body buzzing with tension and power. He tenses his jaw and paces across the hall, his high voltage energy crackling.
“I passed a guy coming in here: tall, stocky, tattooed, with a shaved head … is that him?” His voice grinds through his teeth revealing a venom in him I’ve never known him to possess. He scares me like this, and all I can do is nod.
“Mother fu …” He turns and speeds down the stairwell pursuing my attacker without a second thought.
Oh, my god, no. Jake, no!"
