Jess’s Reviews > Releasing 10 > Status Update

"Don't regret me, Hugh," I said quietly.
"Never" he vowed, embracing me with tenderness. "You're the only part of my life I can't plan for." He pressed a kiss to my lips. "And the only part I can't live without."

Hugh filled my cup up with the very things I had been drained of in my night-mares. Instead of inflicting pain, fear, and harm like the monster had, my boyfriend instilled power, trust, and respect inside of me.

Hugh had the capacity to physically dominate me at any given moment if he wanted to, like the monster had, and there would be nothing I could do to fight him off, just like there hadn't been with the monster. This boy could take whatever he wanted from my body with force, and I felt secure in the knowledge he never would.

Because I needed this boy to finally claim my body as his. That was the only way I could make it all go away. His touch was the only thing that could erase the monster's.

Because his touch was good.
It was safe.
It was so fucking right.
When he was with me, I finally felt like I was okay again. Like the world was back on its axis. Normality had resumed and I would survive. I had another night of living left in me, but only if I got to live it with him.

"I'm just happy, that's all." He took another lick of his ice cream and turned his attention to the water. "Today was a good day" He rested his hand on my knee and sighed in contentment. "A good day, baby."
Yeah, it was. "I love being here, I told him, feeling my body soften right along with my heart. "With you"
"Me too, Liz." He gave my knee a reassuring squeeze, "Me too."

"You know these changing rooms are unisex."
Snickering, I glanced over my shoulder at him. "I don't care."
"Well, I do."
"Why?"
"Because you're mine to look at." My heart slammed in my chest. "Not anyone else's."
I turned around to face my towel-wielding bodyguard and grinned. "Then look."

"You already got your birthday present," he replied, gesturing to the shiny new semicolon charm attached to my bracelet.

"Because you're a little rebel." A shiver racked through me when Hugh placed his hands on the armrests of my chair and leaned in close, caging me in. "Aren't ya?"
"Maybe," I breathed, heart bucking wildly, when my legs opened of their own accord, and he slid between them. "But I'm your rebel."
"No." His lips brushed against mine as he spoke. "You're my baby"😭