Page 46 of Wed to the Devil

I grunt. “Until he stole Daisy from me. When Burn broke off the engagement by announcing to the family that he was marrying Daisy, he changed. In the blink of an eye, I lost him. He became someone I didn’t know.”

She traces figure eights into my skin but her eyes are locked on mine.

“You lost your brother and your fiancée in one fell swoop. How cruel. That must have been hard for you.”

My only response is a shrug. I swallow, uneasy with anyone seeing just how furious and heartbroken I was. Maybe I still am.

Clearing my throat, I break eye contact with Talia and look off into the distant darkness.

Her voice is more hesitant when she speaks again. “The last thing I want is to pile on. But I would like to know when your mother passed.”

I put a hand over my heart, unconsciously feeling a distant ache.

“Do you have to open and examine all of my scars tonight, Talia?”

She winces. “Sorry. I thought it was best to rip the bandages off all at once. Plus, you’re usually quite… argumentative.”

I heave a sigh. “You’re getting me right after sex, when my defenses are down.”

“That’s the idea.” She smiles.

I stretch, sitting up. Talia sits up too, hugging a pillow to her chest.

“All right. My mother died when I was ten. I don’t really have that many memories of her when she was alive. Either she was very busy or she just didn’t have much interest in us.”

Her eyebrows rise. “Your father surely remembers. What does he say?”

Snorting, I stare off into the distance. “Tripp won’t say her name, even if he is asked a direct question about her. Remy will, but his answers are usually limited to curse words. He has absolutely lost it when asked about her. Everyone is too scared to say her name in his presence.”

Talia lifts her hand, ever so gently rubbing my back. I close my eyes, admitting to myself that my wife’s touch does feel comforting in a way I hadn’t expected before now. I almost feel a kind of relief to be saying these words out loud to someone other than Burn.

It's like scrubbing a boat’s hull to remove hard water stains. It takes an immense amount of work, but afterward, the blindingly white fiberglass is its own reward.

“It must have been frustrating as a kid to have tons of questions about your mom and yet no one to answer them.”

I purse my lips, dropping my head forward. “The day we found out about it, Burn and I were already in boarding school in Scotland. Remy’s assistant Samantha called and told us. She said that Remy had decided it would be best if we stayed at school rather than come back for the funeral. So… that’s what we did. The first time I saw my mother’s grave was six months later, when I came home for summer break.”

Talia’s jaw drops. “Seriously?”

My neck heats and I stare out at the darkness.

“Yep.”

“That’s really fucked up, Dare.”

She moves closer and twines her arms around my torso, hugging me. I don’t know how to feel right now. On one hand, a part of my heart is clearly thawing in the warm radiance of Talia’s affection.

On the other hand, I feel stiff and disjointed. It’s like I have the ancient battle wounds, desiccated and dusty, still covered in stitches. And someone just went around with a giant pair of shears, hacking at whatever fabric they could find and reopening some of the cuts I had thought healed over.

She squeezes me tightly and my eyes flutter closed. I am reminded of the fable of the lion with the thorn in his paw, letting the tiny mouse help him and letting her live in exchange. I am choosing not to lash out in part because this tiny woman is trying to help me. Well, maybe help is the wrong word. It’s more like Talia is trying to understand me, to get closer to me, even though she knows I’m dangerous.

Sliding an arm around her, I hug her. She buries her head against my collarbone, the pillow she was hugging falling to the floor, forgotten.

“As long as I’m alive, our kid will never have to face anything like that.”

Her words are a promise that she whispers as she presses herself close to my chest. They hit me like a quick, hard punch in the ribs. I grimace.

Our kid.

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