Hollow (Perfect Little Pieces) Read Online Free

tight enough, he’d ground me in the present and make all the ghosts of my past fade away.
    “Lucy?” He tightened his grip around my body, as if he needed to hold me as much as I needed to be held.
    I nodded as a lump formed in my throat. How did he learn my name? Or where my room was? It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was here. I was safe.
    “Good.” He closed his eyes. “Good.”
    It was in that moment that I realized we were alone. I blinked around at my surroundings, feeling a little uneasy. Unlike the other rooms in the hospital, mine had no pictures, no posters, nothing that would differentiate my room from anyone else’s. Even the bed next to mine was empty. The hospital was under-capacity and the staff didn’t have a roommate for me yet. I wasn’t allowed most things other patients had because I was still considered a suicide risk.
    Would Jayden notice how bleak everything looked and realize that I was a suicidal? Would he care? He was from the outside, after all. Being with someone who was so depressed might freak him out. The thought of explaining my drab surroundings caused a hole to form in the pit of my stomach.
    He popped one eye open and looked at me, assessing. “You could’ve gotten hurt pretty bad back there, you know. Promise me that the next time a fight breaks, you’ll get out of the room.”
    It was odd to have someone show so much concern for my well-being. It felt kind of…nice. I leaned back and blinked up at his bright, blue eyes, suddenly hyper-aware of our closeness. Not only did his scent calm my frazzled nerves, but the feel of his hard body pressed up against mine made me warm all over. As my skin heated, something fluttered inside my lower abdomen, and the hollow feeling inside started to recede.
    I nodded my promise. He closed his eyes and exhaled. Tension left his shoulders as he squeezed my body closer to his.
    “Thank you.” He closed his eyes and let out a long breath.
    Part of me knew that it was a little odd to have him still hold me. The danger had passed and we were alone. I wasn’t a tiny girl. It couldn’t have been easy for him to hold my weight for so long. Yet he made no move to put me down, and I was reluctant to have him let me go. It felt nice being cradled in his arms. Safe.
    I traced his profile with my gaze. Jayden was gorgeous in a guy-next-door sort of way. Thick hair fell in soft layers across his temples. He had day-old scruff along his jaw and wore a small stud earring in one ear. All of that paled in comparison to the long scar on his temple, however. His hair covered most of it. If I wasn’t so close to him, I never would have seen it. It was…fascinating. I wanted to reach out and touch it, but was afraid that my movement might break the quiet comfort that surrounded us.
    He opened his eyes. I jerked back from his gaze like a kid with her hand caught in the cookie jar.
    Something indefinable flashed through his features as he straightened. “Oh shit, I’m sorry.”
    He lowered my body, inching it down over his rock-hard abs until my feet hit the floor. He felt good rubbing up next to my skin, too good. I stood there, gripping his shoulders, not quite ready to let him go.
    “I shouldn’t be here. It isn’t allowed,” he murmured more to himself than to me.
    I held my body still and willed him to stay. He was right, of course. The boys’ and girls’ bedrooms were in separate halls. They were strictly off limits to the opposite sex. Visitors weren’t allowed back here at all. They were kept in the common rooms and the waiting areas downstairs.
    He was a visitor. That explained why he was so full of life. He wasn’t confined in this hell hole. Jayden was free and working for my mother. Why was it so hard for me to remember that? I had to try, however. If my mother thought that she could manipulate me from outside the hospital, then she was mistaken.
    I started to pull away, but his grip tightened and held me in place. He ran