Read Love Me If You Dare (Safe Haven) for Free Online

I’d gotten the tattoo in the horrible months after
Ella’s death, when I’d felt like I was drowning, like all sense of my own
identity had been buried along with my twin.
    I’d
wanted something that would forever mark the fact that the one person I was had
once been two. And the very act of getting a tattoo was something that Ella
would have done.
    Ella,
not me.
    “You
smell like licorice,” he said abruptly, and I looked at him, startled.
    “I
just ate some.” I could still taste it on my lips, sweet yet somehow bitter at
the same time.
    “You’re
the only person I’ve ever known who likes it.” His stare traced over my lips
and, as if pulled with his line of sight, my tongue reached over to trace the
same path.
    It
was so strange, being around someone who knew me well enough to know what kind
of candy I liked... someone who was nevertheless like a stranger.
    “No
school for you?” I asked, not caring that it was obvious that I was changing
the subject.
    “Nope.”
He pinned me with those amazing eyes, the sunlight highlighting the golden
threads hidden amongst the dark lashes. “School was never really my thing.”
    I
nodded. I’d already known that, though I’d never understood it. He had always
struggled with his grades, but I’d never known if it was because he’d been too
busy partying, or because he’d had trouble, but I had assumed it was the
former.
    He
was bright. But I also knew he wouldn’t welcome any questions on the subject,
so I didn’t push.
    “What
about you?” he asked. The words were casual, but I sensed that he wanted to
know. “What are you doing?”
    Once
he would have known, because he’d spent so much time at our house.
    No
more.
    “I
haven’t declared yet,” I mumbled. I saw the surprise on his face, and repressed
a surge of irritation. Yes, once upon a time I’d been studious, and had my
future planned out to the last detail. But that wasn’t who I was anymore.
    “Too
busy partying?” He looked at me in a way that told me he was thinking of the
red bikini that I wore beneath his t-shirt.
    The
words felt like a challenge.
    “Maybe.”
I narrowed my eyes in response. “So what?”
    I
really didn’t know what I’d been expecting, but it wasn’t the irritation that I
saw when he stood and dusted his hands on the thighs of his running shorts.
    “I
thought you wanted to go to grad school.” He looked at me accusingly as he
spoke. Yes, that was definitely a challenge, and I had no idea what to do in
the face of it. “I thought you wanted to be a psychiatrist.”
    “I
changed my mind.” I couldn’t help the waspishness of my tone. He’d stuck the
blade right where I was the most tender.
    “Marks
were always so important to you.” He took a step towards me, and my belly
clenched as desire entwined with my irritation.
    “How
did you know that?” I felt the need to step back, to put some space between us,
but I refused to back down. I planted my feet in the sand and looked up. When
my brown eyes met his greenish ones I felt my heart clench.
    “Ella
told me that.” Unlike me, he didn’t flinch at the mention of my sister.
    I
wondered how on earth that topic would ever have come up. Not that it really
mattered. He couldn’t possibly care that I’d once wanted to be a psychiatrist
because I’d had dreams of fixing my family.
    That
was a lost cause.
    I
opened my mouth to tell him just that, but his words cut me off.
    “What
the fuck, Kaylee?” The stare from those gorgeous eyes burned right into me. My
mouth fell open as he swore. What the hell was he yelling at me for?
    “Don’t
you care anymore? Aren’t you even trying?”
    Something
inside of me snapped. I stomped forward across the sand, poked my finger into
his chest, and opened my mouth to tell him that how I lived now was absolutely
none of his business. I may not have been the girl that he remembered, but that
didn’t mean I was any less.
    “You
listen—” I gasped when, lightning quick,