My Brother Left Me With the Man He Told Me to Stay Away From, and Then Didn't Come Back novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: The Name on the Hull
The night after the feast the heat did not break.
It lay on the cottage like a hand, even with the fan going and every screen open.
I stood on the porch at midnight in nothing but his white shirt and watched him come up the shell road.
He had been gone since dusk.
He walked up the steps with paint on his hands, white paint, in a dark crescent under every nail.
"Where were you?" I said.
"The boat."
"What about the boat?" I said.
"I'll show you in the morning."
"Show me now," I said.
"Thalia."
"You have paint on your face," I said, and wiped it off his cheekbone with my thumb.
His eyes dropped to my mouth.
I took his collar in my hand and pulled him into the screened porch, and the door shut behind us on its spring.
"Tonight," I said, "there are no rules."
"There haven't been any rules since June."
"Say it anyway.
"Say there's nothing you won't do, and nothing you can't have."
"Nothing," he said.
"Nothing I won't do.
"Nothing I can't have."
"Good."
I unbuttoned his shirt myself.
He held still, with his hands at his sides out of habit.
I laughed and took his wrists and put his hands on my hips.
"Those are yours," I said.
"They're yours to put where you like.
"I'm not going to say stop and I'm not going to say go.
"Do what you want."
He looked at me for a long time.
I watched it go through him, what that meant, and I saw the exact second he understood and let go.
He lifted me.
He carried me across the porch to the wicker couch and set me down on my back on the quilt, with my head against the arm and the shirt rucked up to my ribs.
The fan turned overhead.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Brother Left Me With the Man He Told Me to Stay Away From, and Then Didn't Come Back are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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