Violet fingered the soft detailing on the silver comforter as Kaz paced the length of the spare bedroom.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
“I’m thinking,” he replied. “You’re …”
“What?”
“Helping.”
Violet scoffed. “By sitting here?”
Kaz’s pacing stopped abruptly. “Yes.”
“That doesn’t seem very helpful of me, Kaz.”
“You don’t seem to understand the importance of your presence. That, or you undervalue it a lot more than you should. And I partly blame that on your father because clearly he has it stuck in your head that your only use is to be pleasing and to his standards.”
Violet didn’t deny what he said.
It was true.
It just took her a while to see it, too.
“It might help if, instead of telling me why I am this way—something I already know, thanks—you could try explaining why I help you by just being here.”
Kaz’s icy gaze melted a bit. “I said that wrong, no?”
Violet shrugged. “Maybe just the wrong way.”
Instantly, he moved toward her, dropping down into a crouch, his hands finding her bare knees. After yet another snapping match between him and Vera, his sister had pointed out that she had a spare bedroom—if they wanted to use it—but that they needed to figure something else out and soon. Violet, wanting to get back into her safe place for at least a little while, had stripped out of her clothes and snagged Kaz’s shirt when he had jumped into the shower.
“You help me,” he started to say, “because even if you distract me a great deal of the time, that also means I’m focusing on only you. And right now, that’s where I need to focus. On you, Violet.”
“Okay.”
“That’s it?”
“If it’s what you want, then whatever.”
She didn’t have to pretend to understand him to love him. It just … was.
Kaz chuckled, and then leaned forward, resting his head on her lap. She trailed her fingers through his hair, taking that silent moment as there didn’t seem to be nearly enough of them.
“You’re one of my earliest memories,” Kaz said.
Violet’s fingers stilled. “What?”
“That day in the graveyard when you were four and I was ten. I have other memories of being younger than that, but that one day is so clear for me, above all the rest. I couldn’t see a thing, not good enough for it to be worth mentioning, anyway.”
“And what?”
“There’s no fuzziness around it. I remember things surrounding that day, and even going to the graveyard. But nothing was quite as clear and as bright as you. Everything was hiding from me in a way, because I couldn’t see it. I saw the sun that day, Violet, and it was you.”
Violet let her fingers start to wander and thread through his hair again. “I didn’t know you looked at it like that.”
Kaz laughed. “You jumped off the bench and told me we would do this again. I think I’ve been waiting for that day to come for a long time.”
“I was … precocious. Or that’s what everyone says.”
“You were—are—something else,” he said, pressing a soft kiss to her thigh.
Violet shivered when his lips touched down to her skin again … higher the second time, and then higher again the third time. Her hands slid down from his hair to his shoulders as he kissed a path over her thigh, and then her hip. His fingers worked at the two buttons she had done up at the middle of the dress shirt before he was pushing the clothing off her shoulders and kissing a slow trail from her navel to the lace covering her breasts.
Kaz’s hands cupped her neck and jaw, and his mouth came to a stop at the hollow of her throat. She felt his breath stutter against her skin, like he was chewing on what he wanted to say, but not sure he wanted to say it.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he finally whispered.
Violet blinked away the wetness in her gaze, letting her fingers stroke his bare back, feeling his muscles jump under her touch. “Does it matter right now?”
“I want to tell you that I have it figured out—that it’ll be better tomorrow. I want to do that for you right now.”
“Kaz—”
His fingers pressed into her skin, rough but sweet, quieting her.
“I don’t want to lie to you,” Kaz said.
Violet hugged him. “So, don’t. Tell me something that’s not a lie. Something that’s true.”
Kaz kissed her collarbone, making a tremor race down her spine. His mark there had long gone away and faded, as had the other one on the other side. But she swore she could still see it every time she looked at it, and when she touched the spot, it was like every nerve was attached to that one part of her skin for a brief moment.
“Something true?” he asked.
Violet slid her hands from his back under his jaw, tilting his head up so she could see his eyes. Love stared back, and that was enough for her. “Yeah.”