Page 152 of Cinder
Until the new house is built and Angelo Moretti is released from hospital, Lucretia is living at the clubhouse with us. But she might have a hard time leaving because I’m pretty certain the club girls and old ladies have claimed her as one of their own, and they don’t want her to leave.
The ladies have also been visiting Ella at the hospital as she stays by her father’s bedside. A show of support for what she went through. What she had to do in order to survive.
Because we’ve all done things we didn’t want to do.
For some of us it means spilling blood.
For others, it means pretending to be someone you’re not, so your evil half-brother doesn’t hurt your sister.
CHAPTER 69
Ella
“Wow! What is this?”
It’s my first night away from the hospital, and when I walk into Lars’s bedroom, he has it lit with a hundred candles.
“It’s so beautiful,” I say, happiness weaving through the weariness in my body.
After seven nights of sleeping in a hospital chair, my body aches all over. Even in places I didn’t know existed.
“Let me take care of you,” he says, removing my jacket and putting my purse on the nightstand. He leans closer. “And I mean that in every sense of the word.”
It’s been seven days since he’s touched me, and I don’t carehow tired my body is or how every bone aches with fatigue, I can’t wait for him to get me naked and touch me all over.
I kiss him. Deeply. Savoring the taste of him and the way my body ignites in response to his touch. But he groans and reluctantly breaks off the kiss.
“What’s happening?” I ask, surprised and confused.And hungry for my man.
“This will have to wait,” he says. “Or the water will get cold.”
He takes me by the hand and leads me to the ensuite bathroom, also lit by candlelight, and over to the bath filled with steaming warm water and bubbles.
“Oh God, that looks so good,” I say, exhausted.
Lars tenderly helps me undress. His fingers soothing. His breath soft as he steps around me, peeling my jeans down my legs, and helping me out of my underwear.
When I step into the bath and sink into the warm scented water, goosebumps spread across my body, and I close my eyes.
“Relax, Little Cinder,” he says, kneeling beside the bath. “And let me take care of you.”
His hand slides beneath the bubbles and between my legs.
And I close my eyes with a sigh.
He spoonsme as we lay tangled in his sheets.
“I want to stay here forever,” I murmur. “Just like this.”
Wrapped in his body where I feel safe and warm and loved.
“Good, because I wasn’t going to let you leave anyway,” Lars says, against my shoulder.
For a moment we’re silent in the gentle golden light of his room.
Then Lars props himself up on one elbow, and his deep voice breaks into the silence.
“I didn’t think I wanted to meet anybody,” he says. I turn in his arms to look up at him. “But then I met you and I realized I was wrong. I was just waiting for the right woman to come along,”
