You’re nothing but a
stupid idiot,
his voice whispered in her
head.
Look what you’ve done? Pissed off
the only thing good to you, the only thing that wants to support
you.
She flinched when the mental punch
collided with her face.
Talon was tense. Silent. She waited
for him to yell at her, to come after her like he had to Chris.
What had happened to her belief that he wouldn’t hurt her? Jamie
choked on her tears and moved farther onto the bed, grabbing the
pillow and wrapping herself around it.
The brief thought that if she
pretended he wasn’t there, he would leave, crossed through her
mind. It wasn’t until a second later that she felt the bed dip and
his hand settled on her shoulder.
“
Don’t touch me,” she
begged, turning her head to look at him. “You almost killed him,
Talon. And then you yell at me. What do you think I am? A whore?
Trust me, I got called that enough by Chris. I know you might think
that’s what I am, but even if I was, it hurts too much hearing it
from you.”
Her broken plea was met with
silence.
Jamie took a shuddering breath,
raising shaking hands to her face. Her cheeks were wet. “If you’re
going to accuse me about things you don’t know, I would like you to
leave. If you don't, then I will.”
“
No you won’t,” he snarled,
tightening his hand on her shoulder. She started to move away,
hating herself for crying in front of him, for letting him touch
her, for letting him near her after what she had seen him do. “If
you leave me, there won’t be
anyone
that will help keep you from me.”
His voice had her shivering, and not
with fear. She stared at him with wide, watery eyes. “Don’t say
stuff like that.”
“
Why not? It’s true, Jamie.
If you ever leave like that again... God. Just don’t. I’ll kill
anyone, I’ll do anything, to get you by my side again.”
The utter possession in his voice made
her gasp. When she looked into his eyes, everything stopped. Her
tears. Her breath. Her heart. The fear and pain.
His hand cupped her cheek gently, his
other coming around her waist to pull her up and into his arms. “I
can’t risk losing you,” he whispered, his silvery eyes tracing over
her face like ghostly fingers. She felt as if he were trying to
memorize her, trying to learn everything he could about her just
through staring at her.
Her hands fisted in his shirt. “You
hurt me,” she sobbed, pushing him away yet pulling him closer at
the same time.
Talon stared down at her, his emotions
warring openly in his eyes. For the longest second, she thought he
wouldn’t reply to her. When he did, though, his voice was void of
emotion. “Those things he said -- what was he talking about? What
did he do to you?”
Jamie stared up at him, heart pounding
not only at how close they were, but because of what he was asking
of her. Was she meant to reveal everything to him? To tell him how
weak she had been?
She realized, right then, that if it
meant keeping him then she would tell him everything, do anything,
to keep him. They had been through so much together, it seemed
impossible to be anything without him. To live a day where he
wasn’t watching over her. To go to bed at night without his arms
around her.
“
He... You know how you’ll
read about abuse cases in the papers?” she asked thinly, realizing
it was a lot harder than she had thought it would be.
Talon nodded mutely, tightening his
arms around her until it felt like she couldn’t breathe. The only
good thing about it was the fury that was settling in his
eyes.
“
You had bruises. All
over.”
Her face drained of color. She
couldn’t remember what she had looked like that long ago, but it
still made her feel naked. Like she had been stripped bare and laid
before him, baring all of her secrets and pain and hopes that had
died miserably.
Her voice was only a whisper when she
said, “I know.” What else could she say? Honestly, there wasn’t
much she could defend herself against anymore. Would Talon turn out
to be like Chris after all? Not physically, but
mentally?
Tears blurred her vision.
Jamie covered her face with her hands,
trying to stop the shaking and the crying and the weakness. It
didn’t seem like he noticed.
“
Were they from him?” he
demanded. She looked up at him.
Her throat closed up, too tight for
her to speak. It took several seconds for her to nod, and when she
did, he let out a curse so foul and explicit that she flinched,
standing from the bed and moving to the bathroom door.
“
Where are you going?”
Talon asked, fire in his voice. His hand caught on her shoulder,
stopping her movements. She looked over her shoulder, or tried to.
It wasn’t like she could see anything in the dim light.
Hues of browns and blacks reflected
off of his hair. His hair was dark and wavy, catching the lights
from the room. His jaw was dark with a day’s amount of five o’clock
shadow. His shoulders were tensed and his lips, so kissable and
firm, were pressed together.
And his eyes…
In all her life, that look
had never hurt her so much. She had gotten it from her father. From
Chris. From her family when they realized that she had lowered
herself and whored herself out. In their eyes, and almost everyone
else’s, she wasn’t needed
or
wanted.
Right now, Talon was staring at her
with a look that she had seen numerous times. So much hate and
anger in just two eyes, so familiar it was painful, but so much
more potent that it was soul wrecking.
Jamie shivered, dropping
her gaze. She couldn’t look into them and
not
cry.
His hand on her shoulder burned her,
affected her in ways she never thought possible. It hurt, to think
because of Chris he would never look at her the same way. Right
now, it seemed as if her word were crumbling down around her and
there was no way to stop the loss that she felt was
inevitable.
“
I think it would be better
if I just…left,” she said quietly, praying that he didn’t hear the
quiver in her voice.
“
I can’t let that happen--
no I
won’t
that
happen,” Talon said, moving in even closer than before, pushing her
back against the wall. Jamie felt the feathery tendrils of fear
mixed with desire waft over her as she stared up at him, their
bodies pressed together.
“
When I heard that you
left… Jamie, I died inside. I thought Auro would get you, or you
would get hurt. Losing you isn’t an option I’m willing to
accept.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks with
complete abandonment. “You don’t….mean that,” she whispered, wiping
her cheeks with a trembling hand.
“
I don’t say stuff that I
don’t mean,” Talon said darkly, eyes flashing down at her. She
couldn’t stop the tears, and she really had no idea why she was
crying in the first place. He had just said words that no one had
ever spoken to her. Never in her life had she been so…relieved.
Happy.
Grateful
.
The hand that had been wiping at her
cheeks was engulfed by his larger one. He brought it between them
and kissed her knuckles, staring into her eyes the whole entire
time.
Man, he was acting so different. So
much more caring. So much more...romantic. Her face flushed at the
thought, but she couldn’t look away from him, even if she tried.
Was it wrong of her to care so much about him after such a short
time of being with him? It felt like they had known each other for
their whole lives, but maybe that was because of the danger that
had bound them together.
Whatever the reason was, she didn’t
want to dwell on it. Right now, there was finally someone who cared
for her and wasn’t afraid to show her -- at least for right
now.
His lips left a fiery kiss
on her skin, and it spread through her arms. She grasped onto his
shoulders and, deciding to throw her feelings
and
body into the fire, dragged his
lips to hers for a scorching kiss.
The only outward reaction he gave for
several seconds was a grunt, and then his arms came around her
waist and she was being pushed into the wall. Her foot left the
ground to hook around his waist, pushing his lower body into
hers.
Fire spread along her kiss. Pleasure
and bliss surrounded her. His groan of arousal was enough to have
her moaning in reaction and it only got more intense as their kiss
turned deeper, hotter, more dangerous.
Jamie whimpered against his lips,
tasting her own tears. His fingers dug into the small of her back
and drew her closer, his hard-on pressing against her stomach and
making her moan with desire. He pulled back, sucking on her lip for
a brief second and then moving lower, pressing his mouth to the
hollow of her neck. “Did he kiss you like this?”
Jamie’s head fell back against the
wall, shuddering and threading her hands into his hair. “No,” she
whimpered, not realizing in her desire-ridden state that she had
wrapped both of her legs around his waist and now touched the floor
in no way.
A large, hot hand slid under her
shirt, pushing the material up enough that his fingers were just
feathering over the underside of her breast. “Did he make you this
hot?”
“
God... No,
Talon...”
A pleased smile came from him then,
but not the good kind. His eyes were dark, no longer silver but
black and hot and completely hers. Her stomach jumped at the carnal
look in them, mixed with longing and need. He gave her another kiss
before stepping moving away the wall and bringing them to the bed.
She fell into the downy bed and he hovered above her, a complete
change overcoming him.
His hands played with the hem of her
shirt, and the small brush of his fingers against her skin had her
shiver, aching.
And then he stopped, bringing his
hands up to cup her face. “Jamie, I need to ask you
something.”
She nodded mutely, staring up at him
with glazed eyes, wishing he would just make love to
her.
“
Did he make you
feel...good?” he asked, obviously struggling for the right word.
The question drew her up short, made her stare at him with
now-solemn eyes. “Well?” His thumbs brushed over her cheekbones
lightly, waiting for her answer.
When she shook her head, his face drew
into a frown so fierce, it made her toes curl. Seeing the look in
her eyes, he leaned down and nipped her neck, then her jaw. His
hands slid down her body slowly, cupping one breast while the other
moved farther down.
“
Good. Because I plan on
making you feel as beautiful as you truly are.”
Chapter 14
He licked his cracked lips, watching
with rapt attention as the dark cloud came before him, settling
into a seething ball of smoke and then forming into soft curves a
woman. He was standing outside of his house, in the thick of the
forest with candles surrounding him in a circle.
A line of lavender was slit through
the middle, signaling relaxation and entrance. With the lavender,
it was easier for the woman to appear and form.
He stared with awe as the chiffon
settled with a soft movement, the Greek, earthly clothing billowing
out behind her as the wind died down, spoke dispersing around them
in an ominous fog.
“
You have called upon
me.”
The hair on the back of his neck rose
at the deep voice. The woman stared at him with silvery eyes,
almost white in their appearance. Auro held a hand to his chest,
and respectfully stepped forward.
“
Talon has matured into his
powers,” he murmured, praying that he injected enough respect into
his voice.
A slight twitch of her white-blonde
eyebrow was the only outward reaction she gave. Soft winds pushed
and pulled at her hair, whipping it around her hair despite the
gentleness of the flows. He assumed it was her powers, her
resurrection affecting the earth beneath their feet in ways he
could not begin to imagine.
Her face was composed of elegant lines
and slopes, with soft angles and a beautiful, pale complexion. Her
beauty was unmatched, which was not something unknown. Any man that
was graced with her presence, which had not happened in centuries,
was immediately enraptured.
Which was why the memory of his
brother now dimmed, and was replaced by her hauntingly pale eyes
and slender hands, which rose to fix the lapel of her chiffon dress
with slow grace and finesse.
Auro again wet his lips, bowing his
head as her stare turned indifferent. The blow to his libido went
unnoticed when her deeply seductive voice murmured, “And where is
your twin?”
Pain and heated anger flared in his
chest. “Dead,” he spat, feeling his eyes sting at the reminder that
he was now alone. The only consolation he had was Talon. Killing
Talon. Killing his woman.
His lip curled, imagining their blood
seeping through his hands.