Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen, #1)

by Chloe Walsh

Fucked. That was the only word in my vocabulary to define the way I was feeling right now. If I was to add another word to the sentiment, then it would be royally. Yeah, I was royally fucked. At one point, I made the near-fatal mistake of holding her hand. Why? Only God knew the answer to that particular conundrum. Apparently, I had issues. A lot of them. Issues that seemed to begin with the first name Shannon and end with the last name Lynch. Jesus. She was too close for comfort, sitting in the back row of the cinema with her face buried in the crook of my arm. Keeping my distance wasn’t exactly an option when she was all skittish and frightened. Yeah, it was safe to say that I screwed up with the choice of film. My pint-sized companion was not a fan of horror. At one point, I half expected Shannon to climb onto my lap. She certainly looked like she wanted to. If she did, I wouldn’t stop her. In fact, it was taking everything in me to keep my hands to myself and not pull her onto my lap. I didn’t care if it would hurt me. I didn’t care, period. Because I was vulnerable around this girl. Shannon Lynch utterly disarmed me. “Are you okay?” I whispered during a particularly gory scene, while Shannon did a fantastic job of burrowing a hole in my shirt with her nails. “Shan?” “All good,” she strangled out, fingers knotted in my clothes. “I’m totally fine.” She wasn’t. Far from it. But I was too selfish to push because I didn’t want to leave. No, I didn’t want her to leave.