Page 39 of Savage Heart

We’ve been through too much already to not deserve bliss.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Alaric

Her eyes closed, Sienna lies in the middle of the king size bed in the suite Gideon gave me. From the moment she walked through the door, it’s been our room.

Our sanctuary. The one place I know she’s safer than anywhere else in the world on this night.

I slip out of my dress shirt and toss it onto the chair in the corner of the room. “You aren’t falling asleep on me, are you?”

She smiles and opens her eyes as she shakes her head. “I would have thought after all that happened that I’d be exhausted, but I’m wide awake. I was just reveling in how incredible this bed feels.”

Still dressed in that ugly silver dress, although now it resembles silver tatters more than anything else, she looks more beautiful than every other woman in the world right now. In those moments when I thought I lost her, I silently promised if I had another chance to show Sienna how I feel, I’d make sure I erased those two years without me so she’ll never doubt I’m a man crazy in love with her.

“Gideon has a nice place here,” I say with a chuckle as I make my way over to the bed as she sighs.

“Nice isn’t the word for it,” Sienna says with a sexy smile as she rolls back and forth on the mattress from one side to the other. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a comfortable bed in my life. It’s like I’m lying on a cloud. Your cousin has excellent taste in mattresses.”

I stop in front of her and nudge her legs open with my knee. “I’ll be sure to tell him. Of all the compliments he’s received in his life, I bet this will be the first for his choice of beds.”

“Have you slept in this bed yet? Seriously, you need to lie down and tell me this isn’t the most comfortable thing you’ve ever felt in your life.”

I let my gaze drift up and down her body and smile. “I’d rather be on top of something else, to be honest.”

That gets me an odd look, and a second later, Sienna slides off the bed to stand in front of me. “I need to get out of this asinine dress,” she says, looking down her body at the strips of silver fabric hanging from just under her ribs. “I guess it’s not actually a dress anymore. It’s more like a silver version of those things at the car wash.”

She lifts her arms and smiles up at me with such innocence that it feels wrong to be thinking of how much I want to be inside her. “Help me get this ugly thing off. It needs to go in the garbage, where it belonged in the first place.”

I tug it up over her head in one hard yank and toss it over toward the wastebasket near the desk on the other side of the room. When I turn back to face her, she’s standing naked in front of me and looking like some kind of goddess.

“My brother didn’t bother to give me underwear or a bra when he insisted I wear that ridiculous get-up,” Sienna says with uncharacteristic shyness, avoiding my gaze.

“Don’t think about him or that ugly thing he made you wear,” I say with a smile as I tilt her chin up so she looks at me.

Her dark eyes look unsure, but I don’t know why. Hoping to reassure her that she’s safe from now on, I lean down to press a soft kiss against her lips.

“It’s okay, Sienna. I won’t let him or anyone hurt you ever again. I promise.”

She tries to give me a smile, but it never reaches her eyes still full of something that says she’s worried. “I know.”

“Then what’s wrong? I can see it in your eyes. Something’s bothering you. What is it? Tell me.”

A heavy sigh escapes from her, and her shoulders sag like she’s been carrying the weight of the world for far too long. “I think it’s just everything. Being taken from my home right before graduation. Sitting in that room at my brother’s for all those hours. Then finally having to go through all of that tonight. I honestly think that’s why I was raving about the bed. It’s the first time I’ve felt safe since right after you left my apartment the other day.”

Taking her beautiful face in my hands, I cradle it as I try to imagine how traumatizing all of that was for her. I have the ability to compartmentalize—I always have—and that makes dealing with things easier. I see something I need to overcome, so I do whatever I have to in order to make that happen.

But that’s because I’m the one in control. When I’m not, life becomes almost impossible to deal with.

Sienna hasn’t had any control from the moment that fucker Trent grabbed her and handed her over to her brothers. I can’t even imagine how hard it’s been for her.

That’s all over now, though. She’s with me, and I won’t let anything happen to her ever again.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there so none of this happened. From now on, if someone wants to get to you, they’ll have to get through me first. You know that, right?”

“I do. I guess it’s everything happening that’s got me a little frazzled and getting rid of that dress I hated from the moment he forced me to put it on just made everything come into focus, Alaric. I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t show up at that party tonight.”

With a smile, I press a tiny kiss to her forehead and whisper against her soft skin, “You never have to think that again, Sienna.”

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