Insomnia

FIGHTER OLD

Cade finishes with the sheets, opting to sleep in a different bed when Evie gets done and dressed. He walks into the bathroom, watching her depressively pop bubbles on the surface of the water. He pulls off his shirt and sweats, joining her in the bath. She curls up in his lap, tracing designs on his inked skin. Her hand drifts to his throat where the angel stands in all her angelic glory. The angel's arms innocently cover her bare chest, her leg pulled up at just the right angle to hide the junction of her thighs. Loose ringlets hang around her shoulders, beautifully drawn. It's all in black in white. He doesn't tend to like color, she guesses.

"I kinda want a tattoo." She suddenly muses.

"Hmm... Where?" He asks.

She shrugs.

"You look like a minimalist girl to me. Something small." He brings her hand out of the water. "Maybe... Arm." He kisses at the slightly sensitive skin at the inside of her wrist. "In between the fingers." Cade rubs his thumb on the outside of her fourth finger. "You've got a cute little freckle in between your fingers. Where is it?" He checks the hand he has, then the other one. He finds it on the inside of her pinkie. "I met this girl once — an astronomer — and she had a birthmark right..." He pokes a section of skin below her knee. "Here. She asked the artist to to label it Jupiter because it had a little darker spot that looked like the eye of Jupiter."

Evie smiles half-heartedly.

Cade turns her so she lies against his chest. She rests her eyes, nearly purring with delight as Cade runs his newly soapy hands down her arms. He washes every delicate finger, gently cleaning under every repairing chewed nail. He goes to her neck next, running his palms down her arms again, sliding them around her belly.

"Cade..." She murmurs, a sharp gasp escaping her lips.

"I'm so fucking sorry." He growls.

•

"What was that?" She asks softly, sitting down on the bed. "In the bathroom? Not that I didn't enjoy it. It was nice to be so..." Her eyes drift beside herself to Cade. "Close."

"I'm an asshole. A monster." He grumbles, pulling one of his sweatshirts over her head. "And a shitty-ass boyfriend. I lied to you and-"

"Cade, I love you. I don't think you could scare me away even if you were some terrifying beast. I don't know why you lied, but it had to have been for a good reason. You told me what happened to you as a teenager, I know you didn't lie to me about that." She gently pulls his chin so he's forced to look her in the eyes. "Plus, I don't care about your past. I only care about who you are now. Past is stupid. It's obvious that you buried it deep, and I'll leave it that way. Why dig up a body if the police will just persecute you for it?"

"Yeah." He responds half-heartedly, circling around to the other side of the bed and ripping up the sheets, turning off the light.

"Are you okay?" She asks.

"I'll get over it."

She purses her lips. "Do you want to tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"The truth."

"Yes."

"Then why-"

"Because you'll hate me."

She snuggles into the comforter, lying her head on his chest. "I could never hate you. Unless you actually slept with Rosa. Then I would butcher your dumb butt."

"I didn't. I just wanted to make you mad."

Her mouth twists. "You just wanted to break my poor heart."