Page 114 of Phantom
My phone vibrates and I check my watch to see a picture of Rand bleeding in my dungeon and strapped to a chair. A message from Sabine confirms that she’s secured him and that she and Jaime are keeping watch for me until I deal with it in the morning.
Good.
The tension in my back and chest immediately loosens, knowing I can count on my shadows, and that Rand is no longer out in the world with the potential to hurt Scarlett or anyone else in my family.
“I’ll take care of it.” The promise rumbles from my throat. “Be careful on your way back to your room.”
My fingers disappear from Scarlett’s silky skin like it’ll singe me. Her jaw falls with the movement, and panic surfaces in her moonlight gaze. I turn to close my front door, leaving her on my threshold, when she reaches out and grabs my pants leg.
“Wait! I-I’m sorry. I should’ve listened to you, I should’ve trusted you.”
I study her, fighting every muscle that wants to pick her up and take her into my home and never let her leave again. But…
“You made your choice, Scarlett.Twice. I lost every time.”
“No! Please, I made a mistake—”
“No, you didn’t,” I hiss before leaning down and grabbing her hands. “I opened up to you and you believed I was a monster. Don’t feel bad,” I sneer. “You’re not the first. My own mother couldn’t look at my face. It wasn’t until I was fitted with a prosthetic that she could stomach speaking to me again. I hate wearing it,” I spit out, but she doesn’t flinch. “It reminds me of who I could’ve been if the Chatelains hadn’t tried to burn me alive.But I wear it so I never have to see that look on her face again. So forgive me, Scarlett, if I don’t want to see that same look on you.”
“What look?” she asks, her eyes searching mine. I huff, nearly laughing at the absurdity of her question.
“That horrified, ‘what a monster,’ look. Believe me, I’m well-versed in it.”
She shakes her head hard and her raven curls spill over her shoulder, kissing her cleavage. “That wasn’t toward you. I couldn’t stomach that someone was evil enough to cause you so much pain. SomeoneIknew. I could never be horrified by this—” Her soft fingers caress the glossy ridges of my scars before I can stop her, and I jolt, realizing that I’m completely bare before her again.
I’ve never forgotten my mask in the decade that I’ve needed it, and here I am, forgetting it twice with her in the span of one week.
I don’t move a muscle, but I can feel my body tremble as her fingers glide up my cheekbone. My eyes burn at the reverent tenderness in her touch.
“Does that hurt?” she asks and stills. I catch her wrist and gently remove her hand.
“No.” My voice is hoarse as I answer and I swallow back the emotion threatening to reveal itself to her. “Get up.”
She listens with an eagerness that makes my cock twitch, and quickly gets off her knees to stand.
“Living room, now,” I command her.
The urge to go straight to my dungeon and enact my revenge against Rand is a steady hum in my mind. But the need to get to the bottom of things with Scarlett is an unbearably loud drumbeat thumping in my chest.
I lock the door behind us and she follows me into the living room where I snatch up my Sazerac from the side table and pace on the rug in front of my fire. It blazes warm in my hearth and candlelight glows on the black leather furniture and marble.
When I turn around to face Scarlett, the orange and red flames shimmer over her face and the satin dress that hugs her curves. The vision takes my breath away, but I inhale and exhale to center myself before confronting her.
“Tell me this, Scarlett. If you weren’t horrified by me, then why is it that when I told you who the evil fucker was, you refused to believe me?”
“I believed you that Laurent did it.” She closes her eyes slowly before meeting mine. “But after everything that I’d just discovered about you with Jaime being my bodyguard and his injury, it was difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that my former childhood friend could be dangerous, too. I’m so sorry, Sol.”
“So it took your beloved Rand’s confession to believe me, is that it?” I hiss, unable to help myself.
I want to trust that this woman standing before me is actually seeing me for who I am and not the monster I’ve had to become. But I’ve been fooled by my blind hope regarding her once before already.
“No! I mean… yes. I don’t know. All I can say is that I’m sorry. What can I do to make you believe me when I say that I want all of you? Especially everything under your mask? I… I love you, Sol.” The muscles in my chest clench at those words, and I nearly double over. But I remain stoic on the outside. “It took losing the letters, the music,you, to realize I’ve fallen for you. I think I fell for you from the moment I read your first note written as sheet music. But I was too afraid to admit it.”
Her shy, vulnerable smile makes my cock twitch. I swallow hard to attempt to get my desire under control.
“Who falls in love with a phantom?” I ask quietly past numb lips.
“I did,” she answers, her silver eyes molten and earnest. “I’ve always felt at ease with you. You’ve shown me how to embrace myself, to go for my dreams, and to not be afraid of the dark parts of me.”
