Fifteen

I knew something was wrong the moment Hobie froze mid-kiss, and I quickly pulled back.

"Hobie?" I murmured, staring into blank eyes as he started trembling. His whole body was locked up tight, his face devoid of emotions, as if he was trapped in whatever memory or nightmare he"d recalled.

I sat him up, and he went willingly, moving along with my urging like he was a puppet.

"Hobie?" I said again, a little louder this time. I was out of my depth, and I didn"t know what to do. How did I help Hobie? How did I protect him from his own mind?

I"d pulled my tentacles away from him, but now I wrapped them around him again, holding him tighter than I generally would, hoping that the warmth of my body would reach him wherever he was.

He was still completely out of it, but since he"d said he felt safe with my tentacles around him, I hoped they would be able to bring him back to me.

Hobie shook again, and I murmured softly as I held him to my chest, reminding him he was safe and that whatever he was seeing wasn"t happening now, that I had him and I would never let anyone hurt him.

Slowly, his trembling subsided, and he fell limp in my hold, his eyes sliding shut as if he"d lost consciousness. My heart was beating double-time as worry coursed through me, and I really hoped Nala and Tarika would find that human soon so I could punish him for every bit of pain he"d caused Hobie.

I pushed my anger to the back of my mind, not wanting Hobie to sense it when he woke up. I wasn"t sure if he was sleeping or just gathering his bearings, but I let him be.

Grabbing the TV remote, I turned the volume low and let the show play as I waited for Hobie to return to me.

What felt like an hour later, Hobie finally stirred, his fingers tightening in my shirt before he stiffened suddenly and jerked against my hold. I was about to let him go when a whisper of my name fell from his lips and he went lax, melting back into the hug.

"I"m here." I pushed the hair away from his face with a tentacle so I could see his pretty eyes. They looked troubled, and I wished I could do something to make them sparkle with happiness again.

Hobie clutched at my shirt, crushing the material in his grip as he buried his face in the crook of my neck.

"I"m sorry." I wasn"t surprised he was apologizing for something that was in no way his fault.

"You have nothing to apologize for."

Hobie made a soft, whimpering sound as wetness coated my skin. Shit. I hated that he was hurting. If I could, I would take all his pain into me, but since that wasn"t possible, all I could do was hold him to me and comfort him.

"I—I freaked out. While we were kissing," he said, as if I might"ve forgotten what happened.

"Yes, you did. But that wasn"t your fault." More tears spilled onto my skin. "Can you look at me, Hobie? Please?"

Hobie shook his head, clinging harder to me, and I pressed a kiss to his head, which made him whimper again.

"Sweetheart, it. Wasn"t. Your. Fault. Okay? Someone did some truly despicable things to you, and even if you don"t remember everything, a part of you does. Sometimes, you"re going to react to certain things in certain ways, but that"s not your fault," I insisted, searching for a way to make him see the truth of my words.

"I..." Hobie mumbled, and I stopped speaking, waiting for him to say what he wanted to. After a long moment, he exhaled sharply and said, "I don"t want you to stop kissing me."

I blinked, not expecting that. Was he worried I wouldn"t want to kiss him again because of the way he"d reacted?

While it was true that I didn"t want to trigger him again, that didn"t mean I didn"t want to kiss him.

"I do want to kiss you again, Hobie," I murmured, then sighed. "But I don"t want to hurt you."

Hobie nodded into my skin, and I squeezed him closer.

"Was there anything in particular that scared you?" I wanted to figure out if there was something specific that had triggered him, and if we could avoid doing that in the future.

Hobie was quiet for a long moment before he mumbled something I couldn"t understand.

"Could you repeat that, sweetie?" The endearment fell from my lips without a second thought.

Hobie pulled back from my neck the barest inch, and said, "I closed my eyes."

Oh. I"d been thinking about this for a while, but I was sure now. Judging by all the memories Hobie had recovered, he"d been kept blindfolded, probably for the whole duration of his captivity. We might"ve realized it if I hadn"t used my magic to try to heal him in the beginning. I must"ve healed whatever damage his eyes had retained from not seeing light for months.

It was strange that he wasn"t afraid of the dark, but then again, triggers didn"t always make sense.

"Okay. Then next time, we"ll just have to make sure you don"t do that, okay?"

Hobie finally, finally stopped hiding, peering up at me with red-rimmed eyes. "You mean it?"

"Of course, Hobie. I like kissing you a lot. As long as I can make sure I don"t trigger you, I"d love to kiss you as much as you want."

Of course, I knew it wasn"t that easy. It was possible something else about the moment could trigger him, but that wasn"t what he needed to hear right now. What he needed was for me to tell him that I still wanted him, that his problems were not going to push me away.

Hobie stared at me contemplatively, then bit his lower lip. "I like kissing you too."

Eben gave me a soft smile, then tilted my chin up and pressed a chaste kiss on my lips.

"Did you want to talk about what you remembered?"

I shook my head quickly. The memory had been similar to the previous ones, full of darkness and with him touching me. I hadn"t remembered anything new, and definitely nothing that would help Eben and the others find him.

"Okay. What would you like to do, then? Would you like to continue watching the show? Or maybe take a nap?"

I pursed my lips as I thought. I didn"t want to sleep because I had a feeling it wouldn"t be a restful one. I also wasn"t in the mood to watch the show, though.

"Or how about we explore the island for a bit? Now that your leg is almost healed, you can see the rest of it."

I perked up instantly. As much as I liked this house, I liked being outside in the sun too. "That sounds good."

"We should get changed into more appropriate clothes. There are a lot of bugs and critters around. You also need sunscreen," Eben said as he helped me up with his tentacles. I held onto them as I found my balance, loving the coarse, leathery feeling of them. I"d asked Eben once if his skin didn"t get damaged being out of the water for so long, and he"d assured me that his magic kept his skin healthy and that he wasn"t a damned octopus and I needed to stop comparing him to one.

I agreed to the sunscreen without protesting much this time because sunburn was fucking painful, and within a few minutes, we were dressed and ready to head out.

Just as we made our way to the front door, Eben stopped short.

"Oh, wait a second."

I shot him a curious look as he walked over to a cabinet in the corner of the living room and started opening its drawers. It was clear he was looking for something, and he made a soft "Ah!" sound when he found it.

When he turned around to return to me, I realized he was holding a wide-brimmed hat. He plopped the hat on my head, then stepped back and tilted his head, his eyes roaming over my form. I"d worn dark blue jeans and a simple gray t-shirt that clung to me in ways that made me feel handsome, and judging by the look in Eben"s eyes, he agreed.

Grabbing the brim of my hat, I tipped it in his direction before holding my hand out to him. "Shall we?" I asked, keeping my tone light, and I was glad when Eben played along, taking my hand with a small smile.

The flashback had rattled me something fierce, but I wasn"t going to let it stop me from being happy. I"d survived, dammit, and I wasn"t going to waste the second chance Eben had given me. Sooner or later, I"d recover from this, and until then, I was going to do my best to not let my past destroy the life I was trying to build with Eben.

I realized when we stepped outside that this was the first time I"d gone through the front door instead of the patio exit. This side of the house looked completely different from the scenery on the other side. While the beach was all sparkly sand and beautiful waves, this side was green, with all kinds of trees and wild bushes growing everywhere.

Following Eben down the porch steps—because, of course, we didn"t even need to lock the doors—I let my eyes roam around the place, taking in as many things as I could. I didn"t know what any of the trees were called—I always had a hard time remembering tree names for some reason—but they"d brightened up the whole place.

"Wow, this is so beautiful. Are there any animals here?" I asked, and Eben smiled over at me, two of his tentacles wrapping around my waist and pulling me closer to him.

"We get a lot of seal visitors on the other side, though you probably haven"t had a chance to see them yet. They tend to stick as far away from the houses as they can, so you can"t see them from our place."

I made a mental note to try to get a peek sometime.

"You"ll find a ton of cats, though."

I blinked, surprised. "Really?" I immediately started glancing around, as if I"d spot one just because I was looking for it.

"Yes. Tarika and Nala are both cat lovers, and they have a habit of picking up strays whenever they go to the mainland. When I say a ton, I mean it. They"re wary of me, though, so they don"t come near our place." I got the feeling Eben was also a cat lover, even if the cats didn"t love him back.

"Oh, how about this? I"ll befriend a cat and then show them how sweet you are. I bet once they realize it, they"ll be all over you," I said, grinning up at him.

Eben gave me that soft smile that he seemed to reserve just for me, and squeezed my hand. "I think that"s a solid plan."

Chuckling to myself, I followed Eben into the woods, my eyes roaming all over the place as I tried to take everything in. The trees here weren"t too tall, but it was still a dense area. Grass and weeds grew from every inch of the land, and I imagined the four of us having a picnic surrounded by these beautiful trees. Wouldn"t that be a wonderful way to spend the day?

"Oh, there!" I spotted an orange cat lazing on a tree branch. It peeked one yellow eye open, gave me a look, and then closed its eyes again, its tail swishing slowly.

"I think I interrupted its nap," I said with a chuckle, and Eben hummed.

"That chunky boy is called Julius, I think. He was the first cat they brought over."

"That"s an interesting name. Did Nala name him?" It seemed like something he"d do.

But Eben shook his head, proving me wrong. "Tarika, actually. She named him after her son."

Tarika had a son? Where was he now? Not that it was any of my business.

"That"s sweet." I waved at the cat when he gave me another look.

We roamed around the woods for a while after that, and little by little, the tension I"d been carrying since I had the flashback slowly melted away.