Page 8 of His Darkest Desire

Once she’d finally calmed, Kinsley opened her eyes and lifted her head. Her brow creased as she looked around the unfamiliar room.

“I…am not at Aunt Cece’s…”

She wasn’t in the back of her car either, and this certainly didn’t look anything like the pictures of the rental.

Not that she could remember getting to the rental to begin with.

This place… It was straight out of a fairytale.

Kinsley sat at the center of a huge four-poster bed. Vines of lush ivy spiraled up the posts and ran across the cloth and carved wood of the canopy. More ivy clung to the stone walls, dangled from the ceiling, and crawled up pieces of furniture. Flashes of color stood out amidst the vines—bright mushrooms, delicate flowers, and raw quartz crystals growing from the walls. Those crystals emitted their own faint light.

Directly ahead stood a wide fireplace made of rough-hewn stone that tapered to the chimney. The thick wood plank serving as the mantle was laden with baubles, bottles, jars, and ancient-looking, leather-bound books, as were the shelves carved into the walls all around. A lone chair was positioned before the hearth, its wood detailed with intricate carvings.

There were two wooden doors on the left wall. Both were adorned with ironwork in swirling, leafy patterns that stretched across their faces from the hinges. Their handles were metal rings.

A tall, wide wardrobe stood to one side of the bed, its doors and drawers also decorated with elaborate carvings. On the opposite side was a desk with a low-backed chair, its surface cluttered with sheafs of parchment, jars of ink, feather quills, and more old books in haphazard stacks.

Somehow, even the more refined pieces of furniture blended well with the natural aesthetic of the walls and ceiling, which made her question whether she was in a house or a cave. The dim light of the crystals would’ve reinforced the impression of being underground were it not for the main source of light—daylight streamed into the room from behind Kinsley, muted but far brighter than the crystals’ glow.

She twisted and looked back to find a large circular window on the wall behind her. Ivy and thick, dangling moss grew around the base of the frame. The window was dominated by a carved tree, its branches spreading to connect to the frame all around, reminiscent of the tree of life. The trunk and boughs were so detailed that she was left to wonder whether it had been made or had just…grown that way. Beyond the glass, she spied a green, thriving forest. A forest without a hint of autumn color in sight.

This room was right out of her cottage-core-loving dreams.

Maybe…maybe she had been in a crash, but it wasn’t as bad as she remembered. Maybe she’d hit her head, and someone had found her while she was unconscious and brought her here?

Kinsley reached up to touch her forehead. There was no bump, no tenderness, no broken skin, no bandage. In fact, no part of her body hurt at all.

Judging by the hollow ache in her stomach, however, she was starving.

She drew the blanket aside only to pause.

Whoever had found her must’ve changed her clothes, because what she was wearing definitely wasn’t hers. Instead of jeans and a T-shirt, she was dressed in a long white nightgown, something straight out of a Jane Austen novel. There were ruffles on the low-cut bodice and short sleeves, and lace trim on the hem. The fabric itself was so delicate that she could nearly see through it. Worse, she wasn’t wearing anything beneath it. No bra, no underwear. Nothing.

Kinsley wrinkled her nose and clutched the blanket. “Okay… That’s not totally freaking creepy. Not at all.”

Where were her clothes?

She shoved aside the thought of someone undressing her. She just…couldn’t spend time thinking about it when she had far more pressing concerns, first and foremost of them being, Where the heck am I?

Scooting toward the edge of the bed, she stood, and the skirt of her nightgown fell to brush her ankles. Her feet touched down on something soft. Looking down, she spotted clumps of green moss growing on the floorboards. She wiggled her toes.

“This is just getting stranger and stranger.”

It was like this room was a living, breathing part of the forest.

And while nature was literally claiming this room, it didn’t look at all like it had been abandoned. Everything was clean, free of dust and cobwebs, and lived in.

She glanced around, searching for her things, but they were nowhere to be seen. Moving to the wardrobe, she reached for it and hesitated. It was intrusive to go through a stranger’s belongings.

Isn’t it also intrusive to undress an unconscious person?

Maybe there were exceptions to be made, given the circumstances?

She opened the wardrobe.

The aroma of oakmoss and amber filled her senses. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she leaned forward to take that fragrance in deeper. It was sensual and heady, and so…familiar. Heat stirred in her core, her nipples tightened, and her sex clenched.

“Oh…” Kinsley gripped the wardrobe door and curled her toes.

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