Page 54 of Steel Rain

Hehadliftedmeup and wrapped his jacket around me. He was only in his t-shirt and carried me like a bride back to the clearing where the barracks were.

I would normally not allow something like this. But it felt safe with him.

Anyway, my legs were too weak for me to run away, and my arms were too tired to fight him.

“I’m sorry,” he quietly whispered into my hair as he walked us through the woods. How were his legs so steady on the frosted ground? How was he able to carry us both through the uneven, mountain terrain? “I tried to save you from me. But I’ve failed.”

His words didn’t need an answer. And I didn’t need saving. Not from him.

“Now that I’ve had you, I can’t ever let you go.” He placed a kiss on my forehead, and I leaned into his warmth.

“Ajax,” I whispered on a sigh. “You’ve had me before now …”

“That was different,” he said, as he continued to walk steadily to more familiar ground.

The sound of the revelry grew louder, pulling us from the magical wilderness he and I had just been in. It was like we had been in a magical land of fairies and pixies. The woods were another world, and now we were coming back to reality and this wretched existence.

“That was in a filthy alleyway, or on a God damn fighting mat.” When we were near the edge of the woods, before we’d be exposed to the eyes of my comrades, he stopped and looked at me. “It’s another thing to have fucked you in nature. Out here, something sacred happened. Whatever powers exist in this world have declared that you are mine.”

As he said it, I believed it. And maybe it was old world superstitions. Maybe it was the Irish in me that might still believe in the spirits. A latent pagan animism of my ancestors. But there was something natural about us together.

“I’m only letting you go here because I don’t want others to see.” He cupped my face in his hands, squeezing the life out of me. “Because I don’t think you want them to know.”

To make sure there was no misunderstanding, he pushed me against the rough tree bark of an oak, and pulled my shirt aside until my clavicle was exposed. He bit down on it, sucking the skin until a bruise formed. A fucking hickey again. Like we were filthy teenagers.

“But make no mistake,” he said after he released the tender flesh. “I will mark you in front of the world one day. Be ready for it.”

He let me go, and it was like he drifted into the mist. He just disappeared into nature, leaving me alone against a tree, lost in the sound of the woodland creatures that scurried around. In the soft tinkling of the distant creek, and the rustling of the leaves.

He had marked me. A mark that felt so deep, it threatened to overshadow the bruises on my soul that Keith had left.

I touched the mark on my clavicle and caressed the tender skin.

Did I like that? Did I want that? More importantly, did he mean it?

Men cannot be trusted.

So why was I weak in the knees, thinking that this man wanted to claim me in front of the world? To claim me in front of the man who had stolen my life? Would his marks give me back what had been taken years ago?

Chapter 25

Ajax

Shewasmine.Thedecision was out of my hands. It was simple truth now. Sinead Flanagan belonged to me. Keith Bournes could rot in hell.

I came to Eoghan’s mansion for dinner with that in mind. I was going to lay it out on the table.

Did I come to such an extreme decision with any kind of careful contemplation? Had I meditated and made the choice? No. I was compelled to it. It was irrational, and instinctive.

I had left her at the edge of the woods and stepped away from her. I had stepped into the leaves and thickets and waited, watching her touch the mark I left below her throat.

She had smiled as she pressed on the blueing skin. She liked it. I, in turn, liked that.

I wanted more of my teeth marks on her. I wanted them on her inner thighs, on her stomach, on her breast.

She had to be mine. I had to make it so. If I had to play by the Green Fields rules, then I would do it. If I had to play by the rules of the cage made of iron and steel, then so be it.

But when I arrived, dinner was underway. Keith was at the table, a large glass of dark beer in his hand, and a rare steak on his plate.

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