Page 19 of Beyond Rosy Irish Twilight

Then, I felt his fingers slip under my hair and slowly move over my scalp. But instead of calming me down, the feel of his hands on my head only made me stiffen in fear.

“Bitch, you will give me what I want!”

The cuffs rattled as they slid over my bleeding skin. I tried to struggle. I put up the best fight I could, but I was incapacitated. He slid his fingers up my neck and then gripped the back of my hair tightly, yanking my head back. I felt the cold steel of a blade pressed against my throat as I struggled to stay still. With my back arched, pain made it difficult to stay alert. I was on the verge of passing out, but I knew if that happened, I wouldn’t be able to fight them off any longer.

I struggled to keep the tears at bay. They wouldn’t help me right now. His hot breath slid over my skin, leaving a filmy residue that made me gag. His hand cupped my breast and pinched my nipple hard. As hard as I struggled for control, panic and fear won out. I was breathing too fast, terrified of what this man would do. Every last inch of me shook in fear, and my breathing became so erratic that I started to see spots. I was going to pass out.

Desperate to get away, I struggled with every last bit of energy I had. I yanked on the cuffs harder, feeling something in my shoulder give as I pulled with everything I had. I screamed and cried, kicked out—connecting every once in a while with a piece of bone. But all I got in the end was a depraved chuckle, and the mad man behind me saying how fun this was going to be.

“Please,” I begged after what felt like hours. My throat was raw and every inch of my body hurt. I wanted to lay down in a soft bed and forget this nightmare ever happened, but his mocking laugh brought me back to reality. I was never getting out of here.

I jerked away from Asher, scrambling to the other side of the bed. My breathing was too chaotic to think clearly, and with every moment that passed, I knew I was hyperventilating. He stood and slowly backed away from me with his hands raised. I saw the questions in his eyes as he watched me freak out.

Nausea bubbled up in my stomach and I thought for sure I was going to be sick. My body was overheating and with my rapid heartbeat, I knew if I didn’t calm down soon, I would pass out.

Icouldn’tpass out. Not with Asher here. He walked over to me quickly, making me scramble for a way out. But then his arms were around me and he was holding me tight. I screamed and struggled to get away from him, but he just hummed softly in my ear and ran his hand up and down my back. It took a full two minutes for me to realize what he was doing and stop fighting him. Though my body was tense, I sat still in his arms and closed my eyes, trying to focus on my breathing. I wasn’t sure when it happened, but at some point, I realized I was clinging to him.

It set off a whole chain reaction of me gripping him to me and crying into his shirt. Mortification burned within me, but he didn’t seem to care at all. He just continued to hum and rub my back. I kept waiting for the other shoe to fall, for him to pull back and yell at me for overreacting. Yet, he never did any of that.

Instead, he shifted until we were laying down together. I tensed yet again, but he only held me and continued to rub my arm up and down. With my breathing so erratic, I knew I needed to focus on something else. I started timing my breathing to the gentle swipe of his hand up my arm, and then breathed out as he changed directions. It was like he caught on to what I was doing because he started slowing his pace until I was finally breathing with ease.

I wanted to open my mouth and thank him, but everything started to slow down around me as the medication started to kick in. My breathing turned deep and my eyes grew heavy as I laid in his arms. It wasn’t too much longer before I was fast asleep.

9

ASHER

I couldn’t keep doing this. We were only two days away from the wedding and I was paying more attention to Jade than to my own business affairs. I didn’t really care if the arms trade succeeded or failed. It wasn’t like I enjoyed the work. But in order for my mission to succeed, I couldn’t afford to let anything slip through the cracks.

But whatever just happened with her was something I couldn’t ignore. Something freaked her out, and if I was going to be her husband—even if only in name—I needed to find out how to help her. Asking her if she needed to see a therapist seemed heartless. And she calmed down when I started soothing her. It took a minute for her to relax, but she finally trusted me enough to help her.

I glanced down at her sleeping peacefully against my chest and sighed. If the guys saw me now, I would never hear the end of it. I was falling for my soon-to-wife. That would never end well considering who she was. I didn’t understand the boundaries yet between her and her father. It was clear they didn’t have a great relationship, but that didn’t mean her loyalties didn’t lie with him. And if they did, I had to watch my back. I had no doubt her father was using her as a spy, and the way he told me to watch her had me questioning everything.

But there was no faking that panic attack. The way she stiffened when I ran my fingers through her hair sent anger coursing through my veins. Someone had touched her, and she was still living with those nightmares. And those fears were somehow connected to my apartment, or at least the appearance of it.

When I was sure she was asleep, I pulled my arm out from under her and rolled to give her a kiss on the cheek, only to chastise myself for already breaking my own rules about putting space between us. I covered her up and then slipped out of the room, closing the door behind me.

Chase was waiting for me in the living room, blatantly checking his watch to let me know he’d been waiting a while. “Got better things to do?” he questioned.

“She had a panic attack, like when you brought her here.”

“Did you get any answers?”

I shook my head. “Not yet.”

He sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Look, I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but how far are you going to go for this woman? She’s not the job.”

“No, but I can’t ignore her either. Everything I do involves her whether I like it or not.”

“You pulled Patrick off your detail for hers,” he argued.

“And you know why. If it was just about me, I wouldn’t worry about it, but with Ambrose’s threat, I can’t ignore her safety.”

Not that I would anyway. I may not believe in the vows I was about to take, but I was pledging my life to hers. I couldn’t just ignore her and pretend she meant nothing to me. Arranged marriage or not, she was about to be mine. And she didn’t ask for this any more than I had.

He sighed, shaking his head. “Your marriage just made things ten times more difficult.”

“Yes, but it also put us in the position to gain information it might have taken years to possess.”

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