Your Heart Is Mine (Our Hearts Are Lost Book 1)

by Nicole Thorn

  I came out of my bathroom in my jammies. Isaiah watched me as I got into bed, and I let myself believe he liked how I looked. Vain, sure, but it made me feel better.

  “Do you want to watch something?” I asked.

  He shrugged and reached for the puppy when he walked into the room. “Sure.”

  I put something light on since I couldn’t handle much else. I could only fake it so much today. Clark’s parents probably found out about his death as I flipped through channels. They would want to know why it happened, and it had been all my fault. The police wouldn’t say that of course, but I knew. The killer knew. Isaiah knew. Soon my friends would know, and Bird would be upset. That would only up her detective game. I existed in the center of all this mess, and I couldn’t even do anything to fix it. Hell, I didn’t know why I had to be involved at all. I just moved here. This shouldn’t have been happening to me.

  Blue started scratching at my bed, wanting to come up. I let him, of course. He sniffed at me before settling down on my pillow and falling asleep. I kept petting him anyway.

  Isaiah shook his head. “You give in so easily.”

  “You do that for love.” I smiled. “He’s this little creature that trusts with all of his tiny heart. He deserves some affection for that.”

  “If you say so.”

  When it got too late for me to stay awake, I shut out the lights and laid on my side. The TV stayed on so that I would have noise to lull me to sleep. “Do you need anything?” I asked before I fell asleep. “You can eat whatever you want, or watch a movie. The sound won’t wake me up.”

  He smiled lazily at me. “I’m good here. A little tired though. Do you mind if I take a nap? It won’t be long, and I’ll wake up if I hear something. I’m a fairly light sleeper.”

  “I don’t mind.” I paused while I thought about what to do. Probably a bad idea, but so many of my choices lately had been bad ideas. “My bed would be a lot more comfortable than that couch.”

  Isaiah looked at me with exasperation. “No.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:

  The World is Quiet Here

  Isaiah

  “Yes, I am indeed amazing,” Lynnie told my puppy as she played with him in my backyard. He hopped all around her, surrounding her in love. At least one of us could.

  I brought her home with me because I had to shower, and I wouldn’t let her out of my sight. She watched the dog while I cleaned up and changed.

  I changed into jeans and another sweater. It had been getting warmer, and I didn’t expect to need them for too much longer. Lynnie and I already had breakfast and lunch, and we didn’t know what to do with the rest of the day. I expected her to want to go back home. She would be more comfortable there. At least she would be now that I violated her in my kitchen. The fact that she seemed more upset not that I had done it, but that I stopped, disturbed me the most. Temptation flirted mercilessly with me, tying to win me over and telling me to take what she offered. Didn’t Lynnie know that she awakened the very morality in me that kept me from taking her? It seemed so obvious to me.

  Lynnie laid in the grass, letting Blue jump on her. He’d taken to making her throw a ball for him. He got aggressive about it, getting pissy when she did anything but give him attention. He would bark and nudge her with his head. His ears even flopped with offense.

  “Ahh!” Lynnie pretended to yell in defeat while Blue licked her face. He took off, jumping around the yard and looking for his ball. When he found it, he held it in his mouth and brought it to me, offering it up at my feet. The thing was far too big for his mouth and he just looked silly holding it.

  I picked up the ball and tossed it across the yard. “There, you little tyrant.”

  Lynnie rose and dusted herself off, straightening out her shirt and shorts. “He’s not a tyrant. He’s a sweet puppy.”

  “So you say,” I mumbled while she walked by. She bumped me again, so I assumed she heard me. I followed her into the house, leaving the backdoor open.

  Lynnie sprawled out on my couch, limbs and hair everywhere. The orange stood out against the fabric on the cushions and the light poured through the window, hitting her head in a perfect halo. Her eyes closed, and it did nothing but make her look more angelic.

  I had to be near her. The guttural reaction came from my soul. It told me that if I couldn’t be beside her, then I would cease to be anything. My feet dragged across the floor, giving me what I wanted. Soon enough, I sat on the floor beside her, staring like a lost child.

  Lynnie inhaled deeply, moving along the couch and sighing before she opened her eyes to look at me. The sudden closeness didn’t shock or scare her. She only smiled with what looked like satisfaction. She mussed my hair and smiled brightly. “You look so adorable right now, and I have no clue why.”

  I smiled back at her, having to let the statement go. “What do you want to do today?”

  She clicked her tongue, still playing with my hair. “We can watch some movies at my house. I have tomorrow off from school, so I can stay up late.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  I wanted to gather her up in my arms and carry her out the door. I wanted to hear her giggle at the sudden affection. To see the little crinkle in her eyes when she laughed. To get some genuine joy out of her. But I didn’t. I didn’t hold the girl like I wanted to. I settled for taking her by the hand and pulling her off of the couch with me.

  We took Blue with us, and I decided it would be a good idea to keep some food in my car. I couldn’t keep leaving him all alone in the house. He deserved better. Lynnie loved having him around anyway. He made her happy in a simple way that I wished I could relate to. I couldn’t recall feeling real joy like that. Not before Lynnie. And I couldn’t remember an instance where something other than violence gave me any positive feelings.

  Blue snuggled with Lynnie in the front seat while I drove to her house. I listened to her as she told him how much she loved him.

  It made me happy to see her front yard free of corpses this time around. It had been hellish trying to get her neighbor to stop screaming. Old ladies didn’t hold up well at that kind of thing. It had taken three of us to get her back into her house. Her husband had not been pleased.

  I didn’t care about her. I worried for Lynnie and only Lynnie. She had been so quietly distraught. I had no hope of fixing this kind of thing for her. I’d never learned how to be human, and that hadn’t changed even now that I needed to figure it out.

  After I parked in the driveway, I brought my tiny family into the house. I used the key that Lynnie had with her because I didn’t want to give away that I had my own.

  Shoes came off and the puppy got set down. He flopped through the short hall and into the other room, making old man sounds the whole way. The sound of his claws clacking faded off.

  Lynnie sighed softly as she finished entering in the code beside the door. “I suggest we watch the original Star Wars trilogy, but I worry you’re not up for it.”

  I arched a brow and crossed my arms. “Oh really?” I asked, almost gruff. “Why’s that?”

  She shrugged and strode past me, feigning innocence but with a wicked smile on her lips. She looked like temptation incarnate as she grinned. Oh, all the things I would have done if I could have. Still could…

  “Isaiah?” she called out weakly. She’d already vanished around the wall while I stayed behind, dumbfounded by her very being.

  I ran until I got to her. We stood in the kitchen and she had started shaking. I pulled her back against me, showing her that I would keep her safe even when it didn’t feel like it. I couldn’t do much, but I could protect her.

  We stared at what had been left on her counter. A coffin small enough for a baby. The shiny and black lid had Lynnie’s full name carved into the side. Just the coffin. No note or anything else.

  “How’d he get in here?” she asked, uneasy. “The alarm would have gone off. It cost more than a VW Bug, and the guy fucking got in anyway!” The terror mixed with an
ger, and I could only let her get it out. “It doesn’t mean anything if he can just get in whenever he wants! It’s going to keep happening over and over and over again… isn’t it?”

  I put my hand on the back of her head and kissed her temple. “No, it’s not. I’m going to find him for you, and I’ll kill him myself.”

  She didn’t look afraid by the statement. No. She looked glad in her darkened fury. “I want him dead. For all of this.” I didn’t know if she meant it. Fear could do a lot of things to your head.

  “I have to go check that out. Can you please not look this time, angel?”

  Her lips twitched, but not in amusement, and she nodded. I faced her away and she had her hand over her eyes while she caught her breath. We didn’t know what would be in there, but I knew she wouldn’t ever recover if it held what it appeared to hold.

  I walked up to the coffin, silently hoping it would hold anything but a baby. My hands froze on the sides as I considered just calling it in and letting someone else do this so that I could be a coward.

  With a deep breath, and then another, I opened the lid. My words came out in a rush. “Oh, thank God.”

  “What?” Lynnie asked with a thick voice. Her hand still covered her eyes.

  I stared at the ceiling while my heart went back to its normal pace. “Not what I thought it was.” Though the smell overwhelmed me anyway.

  “Ahh!” she screamed. “Oh my fucking god! Why would that relieve you?!”

  Her panic seemed reasonable since I stared into a satin box filled with hearts, bloody and fresh. They came from a multitude of different animals. The different sizes and shapes made that clear. Maybe ten or so different kinds of a couple dozen hearts. At least one appeared to be human.

  “Well,” I said. “Better than a dead baby.”

  She looked horrified and angry. Her mouth opened, and then closed again. “Technically, I can’t argue with that.” She pointed at me with fury. “Still…” She gagged when her eyes landed on the coffin again. She covered her mouth, trying to hold it together. When she turned green, she ran off.

  I sounded annoyed when I made the call to the station. Lynnie had been right; this would keep happening until the killer stopped breathing. As confident as I felt that I would be the one to take him out, I didn’t know when. We had no leads and very little time to find some. Lynnie couldn’t take much more of this.

  He had been in her home. She could have been here and he would have been close enough to hurt her. I let that happen.

  ****

  It took me hours to calm Lynnie down again. She threw up a couple of more times, and I held her hair for her. She didn’t like that one bit, but it didn’t matter to me. I needed to take care of her.

  My colleagues went through the same line of questioning as always. Unhelpful, annoying, a little accusatory, and utterly pointless. Lynnie gave a lot of attitude. Understandable, since the police had done nothing for her. She wanted to feel safe in her own house and instead, she wanted to run away.

  I sat on her bed while she pulled her sleep clothes out of her dresser. Shorts with frogs on them and a shirt with Iron Man. Appropriate. “No offense,” she said, “but there are some stupid cops.” She slammed her dresser shut.

  I laughed. “True.”

  “Not you,” she amended. “You’re smart.”

  “Thank you.”

  She walked into her bathroom, leaving the door cracked so that she could rant at me. That would have been fine if the shower hadn’t turned on. Clothes started hitting the floor, and I had a flashback to her violent undressing a couple nights before.

  “This is a small town,” she said, voice echoing. “They should be able to find someone who’s dumb enough to leave bodies out in the middle of the day.” The shower curtain slid across the rod, making a sound as it opened and closed. “It’s insane. Does he have a magic wand that makes people not see him?”

  “I don’t know, sweetheart.” I sighed. “Maybe he’s just really good.”

  She groaned. “I’m gonna kill him myself if I have to.”

  I smiled at her anger, then went back to listening to her rant. It entertained me, and she got creative with her cursing. It made me want to shove the door open and join her in the shower. I held back somehow.

  The bathroom door opened and she wore nothing but a towel, still complaining. The smell of steam and peaches filled the air.

  She grabbed a water bottle from her nightstand and went back to the bathroom. I watched her take her pill before kicking the door mostly closed again. It opened when she had dressed and started brushing her hair.

  When she finished, she walked back out to me. Her hands landed on the edge of the bed and she fucking crawled over to me. She couldn’t have known how sexy that looked, but my heart hammered in my chest. Pleasure and pain electrified me when she lay against my side. Her leg hooked over me and her head landed on my shoulder. A hand rested on my side and her breasts pressed against the other.

  “I should start sleeping in your bathtub,” she decided. “I bet I’d be safe there. I could feed Blue and clean your house as payment.”

  I smiled and patted her hip. “I wouldn’t make you do that. You can pay me in baked goods.”

  Playfully, she rubbed her body against mine and ran her hand down my chest. I wished this could have been skin on skin. I had fabric blocking me from what I would have been a life changing sensation. “I have a better idea.”

  “Do you?”

  She nodded, lips parted and eyes locked on mine as she climbed on top of me. Her body surged against mine while her hands found my shoulders. My dick pressed against her shorts and I knew she felt it. Hell, she rubbed against it.

  “Isaiah,” she said my name like she owned it.

  My hand went to the outside of her leg, gently and slowly drifting up and back down. Her pupils dilated and her breath caught. Hands tightened on my shoulders and she swallowed.

  She sounded incredibly nervous, but she spoke anyway. “Please don’t stop.”

  My hand froze on her thigh, unsure of what to do. My angel begged me, and I just wanted to give in. To give her everything in me that she had created from nothing. More than an angel, she was a goddess. Divine and exquisite. She shouldn’t have wanted a wretch. I didn’t have any worth. Not to anyone but her.

  Suddenly, I sat up and slammed her against the mattress as I hovered over her. My hands kept me up and I watched her chest rapidly rise and fall. The aggression hadn’t been meant to scare her, and she looked like she caught on, judging by her slow smile.

  “Tell me,” I said, voice rough, gravelly. “You have to tell me that you want this.”

  “Oh,” she chirped, “I can do that.” Her voice dropped to sultry tones as her eyes narrowed. “Isaiah.” She grinned wickedly as her hands moved down my chest. “I want you to—”

  She misunderstood, so I corrected her. “No, angel. You need to tell me that you want me. I need to be sure.”

  Her posture under me changed when she caught on. Everything about her expression softened into the angel I knew her to be. “Isaiah,” she said again, normal. Her hands cupped my face. “I want you, and I want to be with you.”

  Slow. I had to be slow, no matter what my body told me. I lowered myself down, covering her with me. She wanted me, and I couldn’t say no anymore.

  Her eyes closed before I even touched her. I covered her lips with mine and she met me with equal anticipation. Her tongue moved against mine and my blackened heart restarted, like she made me brand new. I didn’t have to be the man I used to be. Not right now. I didn’t want him to come back. This man — the one I felt like right now — he could be good enough for her.

  Hands gripped my sides while we tasted each other. She reminded me of warm, molten candy. A comfort and a cure to my illness. Her back arched up, pressing us closer together. Ah, she wants more. I could do more.

  With eagerness I hadn’t expected, Lynnie shoved at my shoulders. When I moved back, she pulled my sweat
er and undershirt over my head in one move. I cast them down on the floor with complete disregard so that she could run her hands down my chest. She took her time, feeling edges, muscles, and skin. Lustfully and greedily, she pulled me back to her, forcing our mouths together. She moaned when my hand started moving up her shirt. I made room so that I could cup her breast. I dragged my thumb across her tightened nipple and she responded by biting my lip. I smiled, moving to do away with her shirt.

  Lynnie sat up with me, helping me yank the shirt off her. Her eyes remained focused on me like a bloodhound. I was acted as her prey, and what an interesting feeling. I couldn’t help but stare at her chest. She seemed completely comfortable being exposed with me. I found her confidence beautiful.

  The necklace I had given her hung around her neck, a reminder that she meant something to me and I meant something to her. She hadn’t gone a day without it since I gave it to her.

  Her hands started working the button on my pants and her eyes wouldn’t leave mine. A smile spread on her swollen lips, and I didn’t know what to do with myself.

  When she started pulling my pants off, I did all I could to help her. She seemed far more aggressive than me, and it destroyed me. My pants came off and I moved back over her. Her hands grabbed on my hips, keeping me against her. As if anything could get me to leave.

  I needed more of her, immediately. I left a kiss on her lips before I went on to other things. My lips met her neck, collarbone, the swell of her breast. I gave her a quick tease, just a flick of my tongue. She reacted with a raw sound, her body stiffening under me.

  I worked the drawstrings on her shorts, purposely grazing some sensitive spots. I watched her watch me; my angel looked like a demon. How could that be that better than usual? There was perfect beauty, but now there it had an edge to it. Something animalistic.

  Once the strings had been undone, I started pulling the shorts down her legs and…

  She giggled when I looked up with an arched eyebrow. Then she just shrugged. “I don’t like sleeping with underwear on.”