Reaching Retribution (The Prophesized Series) (8 page)

“I’m really tired of everyone making me sing all the time. I was perfectly fine being a closet shower singer,” I mumble as Colton pulls me into
our room.

“You have a beautiful voice, Ry. Why don’t you like letting others hear it?”

“Because it makes people to look at me more, Colton. I’m already the freak with too much magic. I don’t need to be the freak with too much magic who can also sing.”

“I happen to like that freak,” Colton says as he sits down
on the bed. I try to walk past him, but he grabs me around the waist and pulls me onto his lap. I laugh as he starts tickling me and squirm to get away.

“Stop,” I gasp between laughs. “Please,” I whine. Colton stops tickling me.
When I’m no longer being threatened, I turn around and look up at him. Standing so I’m facing him, I look straight in the eyes and just watch him for a few seconds. Because he’s sitting, we’re now the same height. I step forward a little and push his hair out of his eyes. His love for me cascades into my body with each movement, and I feel my smile slowly fall. I inhale deeply and push his emotions into the back of my mind. It’s easier to control when there’s only one person in the room with me. I lean forward and gently kiss him.

Colton moves his hands to my hips and lightly pulls me forward. I let him guide me.
He removes his right hand from my hip and places it at the base of my neck. When I feel his hand move through my hair, I sigh and melt into him. Colton uses that to deepen the kiss. Running my hands up his chest, I wrap them around his neck and step closer to him. His racing heart matches mine. He moves the hand from my hips to the small of my back and hugs me to him. I can’t help but shiver at the movement.

I push against his chest, forcing him to lean
backward. Pulling me with him, he lies down on the bed and slowly moves backward without breaking the kiss. I feel his hands brush against the bare skin of my back, but he doesn’t move them any higher or lower. I brush my tongue against his lower lip. Colton groans and pulls back.

He slowly moves me
backward and sits up. I end up straddling him. “What’s wrong?” I ask him.

“You’re acting on my emotions,” he says.

“No, I’m not,” I say as I lean forward and kiss him again. He kisses me back, but ends up pushing me away again. “Colton,” I groan.

He chuckles and brushes a strand of hair away from my eyes. “You’re so beautiful, Ryanne,” he whispers as he leans forward. “
And I want you, I really do.” His lips brush against mine when he talks, sending chills through my body. “But I know you wouldn’t be doing this if you weren’t acting on my emotions. It’s very difficult to restrain myself, babe.”

“Then don’t,” I tell him as I gent
ly bite his bottom lip while lightly tracing the muscles on his abdomen. I can feel his heart racing against my chest. This spurs me on. Fisting the end of his shirt, I slowly pull up the fabric. He lifts his arms and lets me pull the shirt over his head. Colton leans forward and kisses me again. I press myself flush against his bare chest. His hand slowly caresses up my back. When he reaches the edge of my bra, he pulls back.

“Ryanne,” he groans, “you’re killing me here. I’m trying to be a gentleman
, and you’re seriously testing my boundaries.”

I
sit back and pout. “You’re too much of a gentleman, Colton. It’s annoying sometimes,” I sarcastically tell him.

Colton gently places his large hands on my
cheeks and pulls me toward him. Kissing my forehead, he whispers, “When the time is right, you’ll know. You’ll feel it in here,” he points to my heart, “not in here.” He lightly taps me on the forehead.

“Isn’t it supposed to be the girl who does the rejecting?” I say as I crawl off of Colton.
“Real confidence booster, you are, Colton.” I plop down on the bed next to him and lean back against the pillow. He turns on his stomach and faces me.

“Ryanne,
will you tell me what happened to you while…”

“While I was dead?” I finish.
He nods and moves closer to me—his concern and curiosity obvious in his expression. I bite my lip and watch him. His emotions continue to flow into me. He’s worried that I had to do something that will affect me later on. He wants to protect me and is concerned that I’m going to act out. I sigh and look toward the ceiling, debating on whether or not to tell him everything.

Lily’s story isn’t mine to tell, so I bypass that and go straight to what he wants to hear.
“After helping Lily, I went to my mother’s grave. I cried on her grave and then she made an appearance. She told me that if I wanted to go back, I had to express my feelings. I started to vent to her, but she told me that I wouldn’t get back that way. So I dug deeper. I…”

Colton moves closer to me and
places his hand under my chin and turns my head toward him. He genuinely wants to help. “I admitted that I didn’t feel like I was strong enough to stop this war,” I say.

“And?” I watch Colton
. “I know there is more than that Ry. You can trust me.”

“I admit
ted that I didn’t feel like I was good enough for you,” I whisper. Colton sits up and gawks at me. I push myself up. “I was able to come back by admitting that I thought I could be strong enough someday and that maybe one day I’d be the girl that you need—that I'd be someone worthy of your love.”

“Ryanne, you’re crazy,” Colton whispers as he pulls me to him. I stare at him. I just admit
ted all that, and he calls me crazy? “You’re already strong enough, and you’re way too good for me. Don’t think you’re not good enough for me. Ever.”

I roll over so that I’m looking up at him. “
I can’t help it. You just too…perfect. A guy like you would never give me the time of day in the real world.”

“Ryanne, were you not listening when I told you that I want to be stuck with you. I wanted to get to know you before the magic and before all of this happened. I saw you. You may not see it, but you’re perfect, Ry. I feel like I’ve waited my whole life for you. I know that I’m only nineteen, but I’ve never felt as complete as I do with you. Now I feel like I have a purpose in life. I’
m here to make you happy. I want to wake up every morning and see your beautiful face. I want to wipe the tears from your eyes and beat the crap out of the person that made you cry.” I scoff as he continues. “I want to keep you safe and always cherish you. I want you to know that my love for you is true. If I have to spend my whole life trying to prove that to you, I will, because you’re worth forever. Ryanne, you wouldn’t be my soulmate if we weren’t perfect for one another. You’re literally my perfect match, and I’m yours. You need to get that through that beautiful, thick skull of yours,” he says as he taps me on the nose.

I stare up in
to his green eyes—the same eyes looking down at me, waiting for me to speak. I lean forward and gently kiss him. Nothing I can say will top what he just said, so I pour all my love into this kiss, hoping he’ll understand. I can’t tell him that I’ll change right away. Someday, I’ll be good enough; today is not that day. Colton wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me to him. Leaning back, he kisses my forehead and rests his chin on top of my head. I lightly kiss him on the neck. “One day, I’ll make you believe it, babe,” he whispers to me. “One day, I’ll prove it to you.”

“I love you, Colton,” I say as I curl into his side and close my eyes.

“Love you too, Ry,” Colton tightens his grip around me. “Go to sleep.”

While Colton is in the shower, I sit on the bed with Olive. I really haven’t gotten to spend much time with her lately and that makes me feel like a horrible pet owner.

Comfy bed.
I smile as she rolls onto her back and looks at me, waiting for me to pet her stomach. I move over onto my stomach and start petting her.

“Things have gotten crazy around here,” I start to explain to her.

I know. Kyril nice.

That actually makes me laugh. Olive has taken a liking to Kyril, and he doesn’t seem to mind spending time with her. It’
s quite adorable actually.

“And he’s cute.” I smile at her. Her onl
y response is to start purring. “I’m sorry,” I whisper after a few seconds. “I’m glad that everyone has been so nice to you.”

It okay.
She rolls over and walks over to me. Rubbing against my arm, she tells me that she understands.

“I feel really bad. I haven’t gotten to spend much time with you. I’ve been so wrapped
up in everything that’s going on that I’ve neglected you. I really am sorry.”

Don’t apologize
. She sits down in front of me and stares at me with her big blue eyes.

“Hey Olive,” Colton says as he walks out of the bathroom, fully dressed, and running a towel through his hair.
Hanging the towel on the metal rack on the door, he plops down on the bed beside me and reaches over to pet Olive. “How are my two favorite girls this morning?”

Olive loves Colton. When I first told her C
olton’s name, Olive told me he was cute and instantly liked him. Closing her eyes, Olive leans slightly forward, without moving from her spot, and starts purring as he pets her.

“She’s definitely good,” I answer for her. With a low chuckle, Colton leans back and gives me a quick kiss on the temple, but doesn’t get up like I thought he was going to. Instead, he wraps his arm around my waist and scoots me closer to him.

A
ww, why’d he stop?
Olive whines as I roll onto my back and look up at Colton.

“She doesn’t like that you stopped petting her,” I tell Colton who glances away from me to Olive again.

“I’m sorry, Olive,” he tells her, “but I can’t give you too much love at once. You’ll never come back to me.” He shoots her a lazy smile and winks. If cats could blush, Olive totally would be right now. Slightly shaking, she lowers herself onto her stomach, rests her head on her paws, and looks away from Colton. I can’t help but giggle as I hear Olive’s thoughts.

No such thing as too much love.
I glance up at Colton
. Always come back.
Those would be my exact thoughts if he was giving me that smile too. Colton’s eyes move down to me and like Olive, I divert my gaze. Hearing his laugh, I know he caught me staring at him.

“What’d she say?” he whispers to me. That gives me an idea.

“Let me see your hands.” I push myself up and turn my back to him. Colton wraps his arms around my back and places his hands on top of mine without even questioning what I am about to do. “Olive, think random things,” I tell her.

Olive starts imaging
a large scratching post. I make a mental note to get her one of those sometime in the future—when everything settles down. Concentrating on my magic, I gather up strands and push them down my arms and imagine the magic flowing through my hands and into Colton’s where it moves up his arms and settles in his mind. I can feel the magic moving through and obeying me. The vibrating strands linger in my hands. Tightening my grip on Colton, I wait for his reaction. I know he’ll react when the magic enters him. When nothing happens, I continue pushing.

This may or may not work, but experimenting is the only way I’ll ever know.

Magic leave me
. On command, my magic pushes out of my hands and enters Colton’s palms. Behind me, he jumps and lets out a shaky breath as the magic slides into him. He squeezes my hands, but not tight enough to hurt me. He completely trusts me even when I experiment with my magic on him.

Olive is still thinking about scratching posts, but the visual is getting blurry as she watches us. She knows that something is happening.

He okay?

“Oh my gosh,” Colton gasps in my ear and he leans forward. “I heard that.”

He hear me?

“Yes, I can hear you. Why can I hear you?” he asks. “Why can I hear her, Ryanne?” As I keep moving magic between our hands, I lean back against his chest and smile up at him. His eyes keep moving between Olive and me, slightly surprised.