Page 73 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

“I’m terribly sorry I was too late,” I said, keeping the intensity of my anger out of my voice. She didn’t need to hear it. Not now. I needed to make her feel safe.

“Too late would’ve been—” she paused, panic suddenly twisting her features. “Is Snow okay?”

“Yes, the witch is fine,” I assured her. “I thought you saw her when you woke up.”

She shook her head, and her look of confusion twisted me up inside. She was still in shock, and her memory was likely in jagged pieces.

Handing her a new glass of water, my gaze snagged on the faded red marks and bruises on her neck. The bruises on her arms were much worse. The healers had mended the serious injuries, but I hated they’d left reminders on her body of what had happened.

What I had allowed to happen.

Never again. If I wasn’t watching her, someone in the clan would be. And their neck would be on the line for so much as a nick on her flawless skin.

“I need to shower,” she said, snapping me out of my violent storm of thoughts.

“I’ll show you where everything is,” I said, rising to my feet. “Do I have your permission to help you up?”

Her brows drew together as she peered up at me. “Um, yes.”

I offered her a hand, and when she faltered, I steadied her. It took all of my willpower to let her go and step back.

“I’ll ask you again,” I said. “Do you want to be alone?”

Her eyes brimmed with tears. The sight of it had my chest splitting, my breath lodged in my throat. I could witness the most gruesome, unspeakable maiming of flesh and not bat an eye, but the first sign of Scarlett in pain cut through every shield I’d ever erected over my cold, dead heart.

“I’m tired of being alone,” she whispered. “Exhausted from it, really.” She was deflated, her light dimming to gently glowing embers. “I don’t want to absorb another wound by myself. I can’t.”

“You don’t have to.”

She shifted on her feet, nervousness in her features. Though she didn’t want to be alone, it was also all she’d ever known, and that made her solitude just as comforting as it was painful. Better the devil we knew than the one we didn’t.

“You asked my permission to touch me,” she said.

I nodded. “Of course I did.”

Her gaze slowly moved up from the floor to my eyes. “I want you to touch me. But not sexually, not tonight. I just want…” She looked away again, and I struggled not to grab her immediately and pull her into my arms. “You to be there. I want to be held.”

“I will give you anything you want and need, and as soon as you no longer desire it, you will tell me, and I will stop. Deal?”

Her lip trembled, and she only nodded. With that confirmation, I scooped her into my arms and carried her to my master bath.

Something inside Scarlett broke, like a dam against a flood, and she clung to me as if I was the only thing keeping her from getting swept up in the currents.

Her surprise at my basic decency and respect for her boundaries had me silently going insane all over again. I wanted to gut every man who’d ever made her feel like her body was something she owed, that sexual gratification was the only way to receive comfort or touch.

The state she was in right now reminded me of the child who sang lonely songs to the stars. This must’ve started with her family, as I’d always suspected.

In the bathroom, I set her down and wrapped my arms around her until she’d quieted again. “Any clothes you want to keep on?”

“No. I don’t want to see these clothes ever again.”

“Done.”

She glanced around the lavish space, complete with dark tile flooring, a rustic bathtub carved from stone before the window with a stunning view of the city. The shower was just as grand, with a wide rain shower head.

I undressed her silently, and when she was nude, I kissed her forehead. “Stay here.”

The way she stared at me like she didn’t want me to leave her was something I didn’t know I’d craved. It made me hesitate as I backed away. Her faith in me was miraculous, and I cherished it more than anything else before her.

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