All I Ever Wanted

Chapter 22

The feeling of the matress dipping down beside me wakes me up, and when I open my eyes, I'm met with Klay's back.

My room is completely dark, save for the moonlight that shines through the open blinds. Rubbing my eyes, I slide closer to him and wrap my arms around his midsection from behind. "You're back."

His entire body tenses up in response, and I frown as I pull away. This Klay is a lot different than the one that was with me awhile ago. "Klay? What's wrong?"

He doesn't respond, and I reach over to turn the lamp on my nightstand on so I can see him better. As soon as the light floods the room, I gasp and cover my mouth.

The flawless skin of his arms is marred by bruises, and when I turn his head to meet mine, I see a dark anry bruise forming on his cheek.

"Oh Klay..." I say quietly as tears fill my eyes, and before I can pull my hand away, he grabs it with one of his strong hands and holds it in place.

"No one gets to hurt you, Logan. No one," he growls, and despite the fact that I'm upset with him for getting in a fight, I'm happy that he'll defend me.

Instead of questioning him, I place a soft kiss on his other cheek. "Thank you."

His warm intense eyes turn their gaze onto me, and I gasp when he pulls me onto his lap. My eyes shut on their own accord as he nuzzles my neck. "Let me look at your knee."

Mg eyes widen in surprise. "You actually bought first aid stuff?"

He pulls away from me and lifts up a plastic bag from the floor.

Groaning, I scoot back on the bed so that my back is against the headboard and cross my arms over my chest. "Okay."

Klay stares at me like I'm a complete alien. "Okay? You're not going to fight with me?"

"I think we've done plenty of that."

He doesn't say anything as he gets to work mending my scrape. He wipes off the dried blood that is caked all over it before he dabs antiseptic on it, and I bite my lip to keep from crying out as the stinging sensation shoots through my body.

"Sorry, babygirl," he mumbles quietly, and despite the pain I am feeling, the use of my special nickname soothes me slightly.

I know that we need to lay it all out on the line. This back and forth thing that we have going can't continue. For the sake of Hope and ourselves, we have to figure out what we are going to do.

"Klay..."

His head snaps up to meet mine, and I have to take a deep breath to calm the nerves in my stomach.

"I need to tell you something."

His body tenses up again but he nods his head tersely as his mouth forms into a grim line and his eyes harden.

Great, this is starting off just wonderfully.

Running a hand through my hair, I let out a shaky breath before focusing my attention on the man that I have been in love with for so long. "I love you."

His eyes soften at my words, and I internally yell at myself to continue, knowing that if I don't get these words out now, then I never will.

"I love you so much that sometimes it literally hurts. I know that I'm stubborn, difficult to deal with, that I have a lot of emotional baggage, and I know that I messed up..."

Thoughts of Nick rush through my mind, and I shut my eyes to block those images of him out and shake my head. "Klay, I want to be with you, and I want you and Hope and I to be a family. God knows that I don't deserve you, not after all that I've out you through, but...if you're willing to take me for all that I am, for all that I've done..."