The moment he saw Rori leaning against the column, every worry vanished. He could do naught but stare at the vision of his goddess, dressed like a Fae queen, resting her fiery red head against the marble. Skin pale as cream, the dusting of freckles, her pillowy lips parted in wonder.
Then, she opened her eyes and the world around him ceased to exist, for ’twas Rori whobecamehis world. His universe.
And with that revelation, the harsh reality of what he had to do.
Thaddeus opened the door, and guided her in with a light hand on her lower back, securing the door behind them. Rori silently took in the space, shuffling toward the small sitting area with a settee and two plush chairs angled to the crackling fire in the marble fireplace. His gaze lowered from the loose braid draped over her narrow shoulder, along the delicate bumps of her spine. He tried to will his desire to rest, his cock a throbbing distraction and the heat building throughout his lower abdomen a force to be heeded. Her dress did little to help him, the satin laces dangling from the top of the corset, calling to him to release them from the bow. To unfasten the laces and golden eyehooks, enjoy the moment the black satin and lace garment slipped away from her skin to pool around her feet. Goddess, his mouth ached to kiss and taste each small freckle along her back, nip his way up to her nape and cover her with his body before he made her his again and again.
Closing his eyes and rubbing a hand down his face, heturned away from his beautiful little goddess and busied himself with pouring a couple of cups of cold tea, scoffing at the hot teapot releasing the subtle bitter scent of healing tea. Aye, he needed another cup, but it would have to wait.
“You once said I didn’t fear you, though I should.” Thaddeus paused with the glasses in hand. Behind him, he heard the cushion of the settee sigh as she sat. “I tried to give an analogy as to why I believed I didn’t fear you, but even that didn’t make sense. There was no reason I shouldn’t fear you. But you’re right. Something deep inside me, something I couldn’t explain or see or understand, assured me I was safe with you. Then you healed me after Rich’s attack and tried to pawn it off as your brother’s doing, but I saw what you’d done before Cael had a chance to do his own healing.”
Slowly, he turned toward Rori, finding her playing with the skirt of her gown. From where he stood, he could see her chew her lower lip, the flutter of her long lashes over a single cheek. He quietly approached, rounding the settee as she rubbed her cheek with the back of her hand. Flushed red, but no scent of desire taunted his nostrils. Nay. ’Twas that foul scent of fear. Fear he thought he’d done away with.
She took the glass he offered with a small thanks, then released a sharp, breathy laugh. “The reason I didn’t fear you is because I couldn’t. I didn’t have enough…space inside me to fear another person, even if I wanted to, because all my fear was for Rich. That first night I saw you, yes. I feared you, a little, because I didn’t understand what the fuck was happening. I saw a stranger holding a knife to my best friend’s boyfriend’s neck, and then my reality turned upside down. I was on the brink of hysterics that night, but afterwards, I held no fear of you because here”—she touched her chest, finally lifting her brilliant emerald eyes to him—“wouldn’t let me. Here assured me there was nothing to fear.”
“I was wrong in how I treated you in the beginning. Like you, ’twas unexpected, and I spent a good time unraveling what I was feeling.”
’Twas liberating, speaking freely without fear of retribution. For now, at least.
“You said that the Fae used magic to make me relive my nightmares the night outside the club.”
Thaddeus nodded once, sipping the tea despite the twist of his gut. “Forbidden magic.”
Her gaze lowered, her hands nervously wringing the glass. Thaddeus relinquished his glass to the simple coffee table and angled himself toward Rori. He didn’t like the way the air turned dense around her, or her uptick of fidgeting.
The torment she struggled through lanced his heart. He reached forward and tucked a loose wave that had escaped her braid behind her ear. Her hands instantly calmed, but when she lifted her gaze again, narrowed and strained, he caught the quiver in her chin.
“He was my nightmare,” she murmured. “They don’t know how bad things got with him, but what they know is bad enough.”
“They. You mean my brother and your friends?”
“Yes.” Rori nodded a few times, then sucked in a deep breath. “Did Cael tell you he broke my ribs?”
Thaddeus froze. His fingers stilled against the shell of her ear, where he had smoothed that stray wave back a few times. For the briefest moment, he swore he saw red in the center of a cloud of black. The vile darkness he thought he’d never suffer again roiled through his mind.
“Nay. Cael didn’t tell me much about your situation, leaving it to you to disclose when you felt ready.”
Rori released another breathy laugh, and he realized it was a sound she made when she was nervous. “I said feelinghurts. And it did. I wanted a night of numbness. A night where I didn’t have to feel the pain and shame and fear I’d been suffering for so long. Yeah, he broke my ribs. It was the night Cael and Brandon rescued me, called the cops, and had him arrested. It wasn’t the first time he’d gotten physical. Funny thing is, I knew the cycle of abuse. I watched my parents. My father had been physical for years, after losing his job and drowning himself in alcohol. My mother took to the bottle shortly after. It was a bad situation, one that I tried to stay away from. I escaped my house when I was fifteen and lived with Cassy and her family, but they struggled financially. I worked as soon as I was able to get a job and contribute, while studying hard and earning scholarships. Two weeks before we graduated high school, the cops arrived on Cassy’s doorstep to tell me my mother was dead from blunt force trauma and my father was in jail awaiting trial for murder. That’s when Cassy and I decided to move to Florida, far from that nightmare. Or what I thought was a terrible nightmare until I landed myself in a situation not too different.”
Thaddeus struggled to temper the rising fury boiling up in his gut. Logically, there was naught he could do but listen. ’Twas her past, her shadows, things she’d already been through and things that no longer threatened her. Her parents were out of her life. Her ex was dead. Alas, watching her sit a foot from him, working through these horrors for him to hear, roused the protective beast that reared its head at any indication his woman was in danger. It didn’t differentiate between a dead threat and a living threat. It simply recognizedathreat.
“After going through that with my parents, I wanted to make something of myself. I wanted to do good. I wanted to help people, give people hope, and that’s why I decided to gointo nursing. To know I can help, be a listening ear. Bring someone hope who may feel hopeless.
“So we moved here, worked hard, saved money, and then I enrolled in school. A two-year associate program. It was about the same time a coworker of ours introduced me to Rich. Said his friend wanted to get to know me.” Rori shrugged, drawing random shapes in the condensation on the glass. “The beginning was great. Honeymoon phase. No red flags. Nothing. I spent most of my time at his apartment until we decided I should move in. Cassy rented out my room to someone at work, having not met Cael yet.
“Then, Brandon started coming around more often. He was one of the first friends we made when we moved to Florida. He wasn’t someone who came out of the woodwork, and Rich knew him from the start of our relationship. But, that’s when Rich first started changing. I missed those signs, yet Brandon noticed, and said something to me during class one day. I brushed him off. When your brother came into the picture, Rich had drained my savings account, took my money for ‘safe-keeping’ but would never give it to me, and began to get downright nasty. Things spiraled out of control. I would cover his marks out of shame. Stand up for him out of fear of retribution. He’d gotten so deep in my head about Cassy and Cael that for a while, I believed him. That Cassy wouldn’t take me back because she had her own man whom she stayed with almost every night, and I had essentially abandoned her.
“Brandon and I were in class together. We spent a lot of time together. And through those days, he started helping me see the truth. He saw the bruises, told Cassy and Cael, and they all laid into me about how I needed to escape. We started to devise a plan for me to safely break it off and return to my old apartment with Cassy. She hadn’t moved in with yourbrother like Rich was trying to make me believe, and the roommate renting my old room had just moved out, giving me a place to return to. But Rich lost it before I could make the escape. He came home early one afternoon as Brandon was dropping me off from class—I didn’t have my own car at the time because I had no money to afford one—and went off his rocker. He beat me so bad I lost consciousness. He, um, he…assaulted me.”
Her eyes flicked up to him, where he sat stone still. He could barely draw air into his lungs, his body coiled so tight, rage bloody near blinding him. Goddess, if that bastard still lived, he’d have been sure to torture him to the verge of death, bring him back, and torture him all over again until he begged to die. He killed the bloody fucking vermin far too kindly.
“Tell me…” he cleared his throat. “Tell me that was the time my brother rescued you.”
When she continued to stare at him, something ripped at the seams of his control.
“We’re sharing our secrets, right? Our pasts so as not to go forward blind.”
Thaddeus growled, the corners of his mouth twitching. His eyes narrowed and he tilted his head as he leaned closer to Rori. “Be bloody fucking happy he’s dead, for I’m of half a mind to resurrect him to torture his soul to the deepest pits of the Netherworld.”
