Healing Slowly But Surely By R. Joseph novel Chapter 201

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201 The wrong help.

Zevran.

1

She stared at me like I was mad; and truthfully at this point, I couldn’t blame her.

Because tell me why my heart was racing so much?

Tell me why my hands were shaking so badly and why I was stuttering so much, I couldn’t even

force out a coherent sentence?

Leilani was still sitting in the snow, her eyes still wide as she stared at me with open confusion. And I… the confused idiot, I still couldn’t bring myself to speak or touch her in fear of not being able to control myself or the words I would say

next.

After a moment of insanely awkward silence, I slowly got out of the car, stretched my hands

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toward her and nodded, as if saying: “Take my

hand!‘

But she didn’t take it. Hell, she wouldn’t even stop looking at me.

Her eyes held emotions that made me jittery, and I hate to say this but only her stares were enough to turn my knees into jello.

I gulped, swallowing the large bile now settling somewhere in my throat before I managed to rasp out; “Leilani, it’s freezing cold…” and you shouldn’t be in the snow. I said, ultimately refusing to voice out the rest of the sentence.

At my voice, she raised her eyes to look at me again, and then slowly… very slowly took my

hands in hers.

And goddess, I wanted to melt!

I wanted to dissolve into the floor and be

reincarnated as a vanilla ice cream so that she

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could lick me.

1

I wanted to take her hands in mine forever and

never let go.

I wanted to grow old here… to die here. To be

reborn here.

Jolts of electricity ran up the length of my arm as soon as she took my hands, and I had to stifle a moan to stop myself from embarrassing myself further than I already have.

I pulled her to her feet easily and smiled when she nodded at me, her voice soft as she

whispered; “Thank you”

But I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t stop looking at her. Bloody hades, I couldn’t even bring myself to let go of her even though she was currently looking at me like I was stupid.

She tugged at her hand again and this time- so as not to be seen as perverse- I begrudgingly let

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BU dliu U༦་ ༥

a

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around us in confusion.

“You brought me to your house?” I asked in confusion, immediately hating myself for asking that as her face soon dropped.

The small smile on her face melted, replaced instead with a frown so deep, the earth’s core

was a joke, and then she seethed; “Did you follow me?”

I wanted to lie. I wanted to pretend like I didn’t know what she was talking about, or that we had walked into the same place coincidentally at the same time; But something about her eyes made it impossible for me to lie to her. It felt like a truth serum- only that I couldn’t drink it— and made my heart race.

I shook my head then nodded. “Yes.”

“Why?”

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help.

T

Why?

How do I even know why?

How do I tell her why?

Do I say that I had seen her leaving her house and gotten worried about her safety, hence the reason I followed her?

Do I tell her I have an obsession with ensuring

that she is safe?

I knew that all of those were true but how do I

say them to her without looking stupid? Or perhaps like the obsessive creep that I was?

I was however snapped out of my reverie when she leaned close and snapped her fingers in my face, causing me to jump- not from fright but from a weird kind of excitement.

I whispered; “I don’t know.”

Her eyes thinned as soon as I said that. She

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folded her arms across her chest, glared pointedly at me and spat; “I would need more than that, Alpha Stormborn,”

“By the gods, call me Zevran, Leilani!” I hissed before I could stop myself, my face heating up in embarrassment when she tilted her head to the

side, watching me.

Another awkward second passed and then she whispered; “Why did you follow me?” And this time, I knew that I couldn’t escape telling her the truth. That I couldn’t lie to her… that I couldn’t

pretend like I fight hear the things I heard; So I said;

“I saw you leaving your house earlier tonight and I got scared that you were walking headfirst into danger…”

“…and you decided to come with me?” She asked; But I didn’t miss the tinge of annoyance in her tone. I didn’t miss the way her eyes had hardened

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so much, diamonds must feel like a joke right now, and how she had stiffened so much it felt like she was disgusted to be in the same space as

1. me.

I gulped again, in embarrassment this time, and nodded. “Yes,” then when she still wouldn’t respond, I added; “I know it was wrong for me to do….. but I cannot help it. I could not help the panic I felt when I caught you sneaking out of your house dressed like you were going for some

secret CIA mission.”

“But it was none of your business!” She bit back, immediately making my swelling heart deflate.

I didn’t like the way she looked at me like I was

nothing but a nuisance. It hurt that no matter what I do, she would never like me. And even though I knew that I didn’t follow her because I wanted her to like me but because I was genuinely worried about her, her reaction still pinched a little too deeply.

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I sighed. “I was wrong.”

“I don’t care,” she hissed as she turned and began to walk away. But I couldn’t let her go like this. I didn’t want her to remain this pissed at me. We

needed to talk.

Hell, we even left my car back there!

So like a puppet, I followed behind her, wincing when I bumped into her back when she stopped

in front of her door.

Another jolt of electricity ran through my body but I had no time to think about it because her

eyes thinned as she turned around to regard me; and in the coldest voice I’ve ever heard, she spat; “Why are you still following me?”

I shrugged. “Because I am cold and it is snowing.”

“Find your way home!”

“It is too late to go back there for my car or to book an Uber home.” I supplied, looking for more

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SHETH BOAR

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201 The wrong help.

reasons to remain by her side.

She scoffed but said nothing, and as we stepped into her cozy home that smells just like her, I blurted the one thing I knew I shouldn’t.

I said; “I overheard your conversation with that

guy!”

And I knew thatI shouldn’t have because she

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