Page 52 of Forsaken Desire
I reached up to my neck and gingerly touched the bite. The rough surface felt like dried blood. Once I put the visor down, I bunched my hair over my other shoulder, angling my neck.
The little light in the visor fell over my throat, allowing me to view the skin. The imprints of his teeth were clearly visible; the indents crusted with dried blood. He’d gone in deep.
Lucian growled, bringing my gaze over to him.
His big hands flexed on the steering wheel. He sped up, weaving down the road at a faster speed. I had to grab onto the door handle so I didn’t move around too much.
19
Ishuffled her inside the foyer, guiding her toward the staircase on the right of the entrance. Her steps were muffled over the carpet, and her eyes flicked around, taking in every inch of our home. She kept going on about her own place and her space, but this was her home now—wherever I was.
“This place is much bigger than it looked from the community center,” she mumbled. Her shoulders were curved inward, obvious discomfort in her posture. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Every blink, every flattening of her lips, hersmell, all of her drew me in, urging me to claim and rut.
I rolled my shoulders.
“Huge.” Her eyes flicked around. “The staircase must fit three people walking up them side by side. Like, do you even have anyone else here?”
“No, Princess,” I replied. I wasn’t lying; there was only me in the main house, but there were two other houses in the back, one of which Cierra had stayed in. I rubbed my thumb against her side. Another piece of information I couldn’t tell her.
My mate shouldn’t know about the whores I’d allowed in her space. The disrespect I’d doled out.
“Are you okay?” she asked suddenly. I jerked my head up to meet her eyes. She tilted her chin up to look at me.
The pressure in my chest eased with her brown eyes on mine. She’d gone through so much . . .
I gritted my teeth, and the top of the stairs opened up into a hall. We crossed my office door on the way to my room.
Once I flipped the lights on, I guided her to the bed. I’d never realized how tall it was. Before I could pick her up, she hoisted herself onto the edge and plopped down with a bounce. She patted the comforter.
“So bouncy.” She grinned, wiggling some more. What had she suffered? I’d been so wrapped up in hiding my lies and gaining her trust in case she remembered her past, that I hadn’t looked into her file fully.
“Lucian?” She waved her hand in front of my face and pulled me back to the present. At some point, I’d grabbed her thigh and I was currently squeezing her skin. I pulled back, soothing the red spot.
“I’ll grab my kit,” I informed her and strode to the bathroom in my room. The drawer below the sink had small hand towels, so I grabbed one, rinsed it, and then crouched to grab the clear box.
Shifters didn’t have special healing abilities, so the materials were necessary. I’d fucked up and hadn’t been able to control myself. I returned to her. Once I set it on the edge of the bed by her hip, I swiped the damp rag across her neck. With each ministration, she didn’t flinch or wince. Only absorbing the pain with ease. It put my teeth on edge. Another piece of proof of how she was clearly used to pain, and it only highlighted how much she must have gone through.
With the wound clean and red, I dabbed the medication along the teeth marks I’d left in her skin. The result of myloss of control—of my darkness reigning. The very part of me I attempted to shield her from.
Deep and raw imprints of my teeth that were, thankfully, no longer bleeding. The clear gel soothed over the wound, and she didn’t react even though it must have stung. I’d guided her straight to our bedroom instead of showing her every inch of the place because her exhaustion was clear to see. Her eyes continued to droop, and her blinking was taking a bit longer.
I smoothed a wide bandage across it, and it easily stuck.
She stifled a yawn.
Her guileless eyes peered up at me. My heart throbbed like she had squeezed it. She had all of it and all of me.
“You don’t care that I’m an ex-convict?”
My heart pulsed again, the pain flitting toward my sternum.
I cupped her jaw and lifted her beautiful face. Her eyebrows were furrowed with a thin line between them.
“Never.” It was all I could say with the thickness lodging the words in my throat.
Her tongue wet her lower lip.
“I don’t have any of my memories before the accident.”
