Roam

She was my daughter's best friend.

She stood next to me and held my hand while my little girl's pink casket was lowered into the ground. The last time I saw her she was chasing me down the street as I left the town that was slowly suffocating me to death.

But now she's a woman and she needs my help. So I'll save her and ask for nothing in return. Except maybe one thing that I'm not sure she's ready to lose.

My face is turned away from him as he starts the engine, and I process all the feelings. “Look at me.”

“If I don’t, will you spank me?” I have no clue where that came from. “Sorry.” I press my lips together.

Instead of answering, the air around me fills with tension and disapproval. I give in and meet him head on. He wipes the apple of my cheek with his thumb, and I lean into the strength of his hand. “You need to trust me, Brinley. I’ll take care of you. I’ll give you things you didn’t even know you needed. I’ll keep you safe and protect you from whatever scares you, but I can’t do that if you keep running.”

“I don’t need you to keep me safe.”

“No?” His brow raises in disbelief, and something about the way he thinks I’m weak makes me snap at him.

“I’m fine. I’ve been fine, and I’ll continue to be fine.”

He leans in and kisses my forehead, leaving his lips to linger as the tickle from his beard becomes little pokes of desire that spread down to my toes. “We’re not discussing you being alone because you’re not anymore. And if you do try to run again, I will find you, and you will face the consequences. Understand?”

The thought makes me shiver, and with his powerful body so close and the strength he offers, it’s definitely not in a bad way. His lips tilt up in the smallest of smiles as if he knows what I’m thinking. I swallow, my throat suddenly dry. “I understand.”

“Good girl.”