Deception. Betrayal. Mistrust.
It seems the closer Rayne gets to the truth, the more she finds herself wanting to run away from it. It's complex and terrifying-more than she ever fathomed.
New family members, good and bad, pop out at her like a br...
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𝗞aedyn ran his fingers through his girlfriend's hair, kissing her forehead gently every second or so, soothing her through her fitful slumber. After they plastered an official label on their relationship, they talked to Kai, and he agreed to let her move in. The longer they spent sharing the bed, the less she could hide how bad her nightmares truly were.
Now, every night, he had the job of comforting her to sleep.
No more tossing and turning.
No more staring blankly at the ceiling.
In truth, he should not be so thrilled, nor happy to do such a task for her, given the circumstances, but he couldn't help it. There were heavy feelings growing between them, sticking to them like glue in all aspects – if he could help her compute something as mundane as sleeping, then he would. And on the plus side, he no longer wasted his time away sleeping; he had a partner.
Aside from their newly invented bedtime dynamic, he signed her up to start seeing a grief counselor; she's been to a few sessions and he could already see a difference in her. Those angry walls and leaps of peril were just her running habits—after spending her entire life without a safety net, she never knew what it was like to relax and breathe. August's death heightened that.
With the counselor and himself, she was getting on the right track. As much as he adored the badass, overly confident woman he'd gotten to know, he wasn't complaining when met with the sweet, caring, soft girl that lived under her hard outer shell.
"Case," he whispered, still patting her hair, "Are you up?"
"Mm," she mumbled, pushing her head deeper into his chest.
He smiled at the display, but still pulled away.
"I have to use the bathroom. I'll be right back, okay?"
"Don't be forever," she groaned; her sleeping voice was so cute.
Kaedyn leaned over and kissed her forehead once more before rolling to the edge of the bed and standing up. Padding into the bathroom with a yawn, he flipped on the light and did his business. As he finished and went to wash his hands, the sound of glass breaking downstairs made his ears perk up.
Turning the sink off and rubbing his hands against the hand cloth, he flicked the lights off and returned to the main part of his bedroom. His gaze dipped as he noticed Caycee's sleeping body still muddled in the blankets; he knew that Kai was not a guest in his own house and was often awake during the night hours lately, but he was not so loud about it.
He was about to shrug and let it go – allow his brother to deal with his own problems as is, but that's when he heard the spill of something else—like pennies or marbles hitting granite? Without being able to pinpoint the noise in his head, he made up an excuse as he walked to his door.
