Page 11 of Guarding Fable

“And I want you to rest. If you overexert, it might wear you out, and you might have more issues remembering.”

I nod. Of course. He wants to get rid of me as soon as he can. Sadness fills me, but I fight the need to wallow. Barely.

“Hey,” he says, his voice even more gentle, “we’ll find your people.”

“My people?”

He nods. “Don’t worry. It will all come back to you soon so we can find your family.”

For some reason, the laughing girl comes back into my mind.

“I think I have a sister.”

“Yeah? That’s good, right?”

I nod as my mind tries to wrap around the idea of having a sibling. I try and try to remember her, to figure out if she is really my sister.

“Hey,” he says, his voice soft and gentle. I look up at him,and my vision wavers. It’s then that I realize that my eyes are filled with tears. I despise crying in general. Or I think I do. God, what a mess. As tears spill down my cheeks, I try to brush them away, but he stops me. Cupping my face, he forces me to look up at him. He uses his thumbs to brush the tears away, and the kind light in his eyes is my undoing. The sob that escapes surprises me, but soon a torrent of tears spill down my cheek.

He wraps his arms around me, enveloping me in his warmth as he rocks us back and forth.

“Everything is going to be okay, Fable.”

Anger hits me hard and surprises me. I’m angry at the situation, at not being able to remember who I am and who apparently is after me. A girl like me doesn’t get attacked and have to escape only to found in the snow with no memory.

“How do you know everything is going to be okay?” I demand, not understanding why I’m so angry at him. He is the one person I should be thanking every minute of every day. I tear myself out of the warmth of his embrace. I beat my fists on his chest. He takes the blows, but mainly because I’m sure he doesn’t feel them.

He just pulls me against him again, his strong arms surrounding me once again.

“I know you’re angry. I’d be pissed too,” he says, his voice rumbling against my ear pressed to his chest. “I promise you, though, we will figure this out. We’ll find out what happened to you and find the person who hurt you.”

There’s no doubt that he will. The conviction in his voice tells me he will do anything to protect me from whoever hurt me. I look up at him, no longer embarrassed by the tears. He does that for me. He makes me normal. For some reason, I think that I might not be considered normal in my old life, and right now, I don’t care. What I care about is this man and the way he makes me feel.

Safe.

It might be normal for other people to feel safe, but I think I didn’t feel that in my old life.

“What?”

He is always asking questions, knowing that I’m grabbing tendrils of memories before they dissolve before I can discover what they mean.

“I don’t think I was safe in my old life. I don’t know why but I wasn’t.” He opens his mouth, but I press my finger against his lips. “Thank you. You make me feel as if nothing in the world could hurt me.”

I rise to my tiptoes, replacing my finger with my own lips, brushing my mouth against his.

I lower back down and blink up at him.

“What was that for?”

His voice is low and growly. It sends a shot of heat dancing through my blood and straight to my clit. I just want to climb him like he’s a big oak tree.

“I was thanking you.”

Something moves over his expression, his eyes darkening. I should be scared. I barely know Leo, but some instinct is telling me I can trust him with my life.

“I don’t want your gratitude.”

“You don’t?”

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