Page 33 of Blind Devotion
He side-eyed me with a smirk before turning his attention back to his creation. No flinch. No aggressive response. No irritation. Not like what Rosa’s older sister got, not thirty minutes ago when she tried to flirt with what was mine. I bit my lips together to avoid bursting out in giggles at the memory of the face she made when he turned his back on her and walked away without a single word.
“This.” He handed over his latest origami creation. “What?”
“Nothing.” I nudged his shoulder with my own and gazed up at him between my eyelashes. Did it bring me immeasurable pleasure to know he was only ever so unguarded with me? Heck yes, it did. Proud and loving it.
“What do you think?” He nodded at the not-quite three-dimensional shape.
“I’m guessing…” I twisted the paper figure around in my hands. Four legs. A tail. A mane and a snout. “A lion? Who’s this one for?”
“You, of course. You still have the butterfly I gave you?”
“Duh.”
“Keep them together. The lion will keep your butterfly safe,princesse.”
I loved it when he called me that. “Why?”
“Do you know what the lion symbolizes?”
I shook my head.
“It means protection, courage, power. It fights to keep what it has and treasures what it cares for. Its loyalty is bound bynature. Its fierceness keeps the monster at bay, and with every battle it fights, it grows stronger.”
“Everything a butterfly isn’t.” I fake-pouted.
He tugged me into his chest with a chuckle, and I relaxed against his chiseled pecs. He probably meant nothing by this, being so much older. He had never done more than peck my cheek, but I hoped he held me forever.Don’t let me go, please.I would beg if I had to.
“Do you know why I call you butterfly?”
I shook my head against his chest, not speaking in case it broke the spell. He pulled away and brushed his knuckles through my hair.
“You soar over the world,mon papillon, precious and beautiful. You take in the light. You spread it. Happiness follows wherever you are. You are the hope of new beginnings.”
I smiled against his chest and sucked in his scent—woodsy and smoky with a tinge of fruit. I could get lost in that. “What are you?”
“I’m your lion, and nothing can harm you because I will always protect you.”
“What about when you’re not with me?”
“No matter where I am, you will be safe. Always. That is my promise to you. My lion to your butterfly. Wherever you are, a part of me will be too.”
Chapter 12
Ahollowsensationbuiltin my chest as the colors of the scene faded to black. His face and features slowly dissolved into oblivion, all of him whisked away on an imaginary wind. The sounds of paper folding were so much louder now. A thickness swelled in my throat as I tried to call the memory back, because that was what it was. That was what it had to be. Someone cared for me. Someone out there wanted me, and until just now, I hadn’t realized how much that mattered.
I was back in my room in a place I barely knew, healing and so very lonely. My only company was a man who intended to kill me and who used silence like a weapon. Tears made my eyes sting. Whatever I had seen, it was years ago. I wasn’t that young, naïve girl anymore, no matter how little I remembered, but I still wanted a piece of it.
“What kind of origami do you make?” I couldn’t quite figure out the shape through the feel of the paper and folds alone. It made me think of a linked chain circle of some sort.
Of course he didn’t answer. That would be too convenient and make him too much of a human being.
“Do you…do you make animals? Could you make me a lion and a butterfly?”
The paper folding stopped suddenly. His chair scraped along the tile. Two clacked footsteps and then he loomed over me, his body heat radiating like a furnace, his stern presence nearly suffocating in my own disorientation.
“What did you just say?” he whispered menacingly.
“I was just asking.” My frustration rose. “You don’t have to say yes, and you definitely don’t have to act like a grumpy ass either. It was just a simple question.”
