Page 80 of Yearning For Her

His muscles tensed, eager to spring into action, to rush to her side. He clamped his teeth down on his lower lip and strained to remain in place.

Finally, the door opened to reveal Willow, with her long, damp hair uncombed and her body wrapped in a large blue towel. One of her hands was clasped over the side of her neck. She took two steps into the bedroom before she came to a stop, her red-brimmed eyes meeting his. Her bottom lip quivered.

“I can still feel him, Kian,” she said, her voice soft, thin, broken. Powerful emotions flowed from her, crushing in their weight and intensity. This was sorrow from the deepest parts of her soul. “No matter how many times I tried scrubbing away his touch, it’s still there. It’s like he’s embedded inside me.”

Kian shoved himself up and closed the distance between them. He searched her face, resisting the urge to reach for her, until his gaze dipped to her neck. Taking a gentle hold of her wrist, he lifted her hand away.

Anger swirled in his gut. The mark Lachlan had left was still there, dark and purple, but now the skin all around it was an irritated red.

No matter how many times I tried scrubbing away his touch, it’s still there.

The realization that she’d been speaking literally—that she’d stood in the shower, rubbing at her skin desperately, hurting herself further—nearly broke him.

Releasing her arm, he cradled her face in his hands. Fresh tears flowed from her eyes, which were so big, filled with suffering and fear.

“You’re safe, Willow.” Kian wiped the moisture from her cheeks. “It’s just us now. Only us.”

“But why is my skin still crawling like he’s here? He…He violated me, body and mind. He made me do things, Kian, things I would never have done. I would never have…” Her voice broke with a sob as more tears fell. “I would never have betrayed you.”

Those words pierced straight through his heart, nearly stealing his breath. If she felt like she’d betrayed Kian, that meant… That meant she saw him as more than a bothersome incubus who’d attached himself to her life.

Could he dare to hope that she’d accepted him? That she’d accepted they were mates?

He wrapped his arms around Willow and drew her against him, smoothing a hand over her hair. “Hush, Violet. You didn’t betray me, and you didn’t betray yourself. You feel this way because he was making you do things you didn’t want. Because he was manipulating you, overriding your will.” He turned his head and brushed his lips over her temple. “You once told me that just because your body reacts, it doesn’t mean you’re in agreement. He forced your body to react. He forced you to agree. You were never given a choice, Willow.”

She clutched at his back and sniffled. “I don’t ever want to feel that again.”

“I won’t let him hurt you again. Won’t let anyone hurt you.”

Willow rubbed her cheek against his chest, and Kian continued holding her, offering all the silent comfort she needed in that moment. He felt her tears on his skin, felt the subtle trembling of her lips, felt her soft hiccups, and they all added to the rage blazing inside him. Despite that anger, he gentled his touch as he combed his fingers through her hair and stroked a hand down her back.

He would not hurt his Violet. He’d never hurt her.

Gradually, she calmed. Her breathing became soft and even, and she no longer shook in his arms. She loosened her grip and, tentatively, explored his back with her hands, sliding them lightly up and down. When her fingers brushed the bases of his upper wings, Kian’s breath caught.

He didn’t stop her as she ran her fingers along the sensitive limbs.

Pleasure pulsed in the wake of her touch, tingling down his spine and continuing lower still to gather in his belly. Heat skittered just beneath the surface of his skin. His every nerve was awakening, becoming hypersensitive, lighting up in anticipation.

No. Not the time, Kian. Shouldn’t be feeling pleasure now. Shouldn’t be feeling desire.

Clenching his jaw, he tried to ignore the sensations, but his defenses weren’t holding. The walls he’d constructed in his mind had already cracked, and they were falling. He tightened his hold on her.

“Willow,” he rasped, pleading. There was so much more he wanted to say, but no other words would emerge.

Her hands glided back down to the roots of his wings and caressed them. “Will you stay with me tonight, Kian?”

With the effect her touch was having upon him, she might as well have been stroking his cock.

He hissed through his teeth, barely holding back a shudder. “Was going to whether you asked or not.”

Willow turned her face and pressed her lips to his chest before she tipped her head back. Kian looked down at her.

“I know what I feel with you is real,” she said. “It was real that first night we were together, and it has been real every day since. I don’t want to fight it anymore.” Her eyes glistened with gathering tears. “I want you. And I…I want you to replace his touch with yours. I want to feel you, not him. I want your mark on me, heart, body, and soul.”

Twenty-Two

Kian’s heart constricted in response to those words.

---