Page 76 of Cruel Deception
Outside, his motorcycle waited. Sophia.
He climbed on first. I hesitated.
I didn’t know if I had the right to touch him. If I deserved his protection after breaking the rules.
But then his voice came again, sharp and unyielding. “Hold on tight.”
My fingers trembled as I reached for him. I wrapped my arms around his waist, gently, unsure—until he jerked the accelerator and we shot forward, the city lights streaking past like ghosts.
We didn’t speak the whole ride home.
By the time we arrived, I was raw. Inside and out. He didn’t say anything. Just parked, got off, and opened the door like nothing had happened.
He let me enter first.
I half expected him to shoot me in the back. But when I collapsed on the living room couch, I was still alive. Still breathing.
He left the room.
I sat there, staring at the wall, feeling like I’d escaped one prison only to enter another. My body hurt in places I didn’t know existed. My shoulder was stiff. My lip, swollen. My wrist, scraped. My mind? A battlefield.
Then I heard footsteps return.
Cassian entered, dragging a wooden stool from the corner. He placed it in front of me, sat down, and opened a first aid kit.
I stiffened.
He didn’t speak. Just reached for my chin, tilting my face up with a tenderness that felt almost... wrong, given the man I knew.
The slap mark on my cheek burned under his thumb. He wiped it with alcohol, gently. Too gently.
My breath hitched.
His fingers were calloused, firm. Yet careful. Like he was holding something fragile.
Why did that heat twist in my stomach?
He cleaned the dried blood at the edge of my lip. I could smell his cologne. Clean, sharp. Dark.
I shivered.
He didn’t say a word as he took my wrist next, his touch brushing over the abrasions like silk over skin. The wound throbbed beneath his fingers. But something about the way he moved—like I mattered—made it worse.
Because I didn’t deserve this.
He snapped on a pair of gloves and dabbed ointment on the broken skin, wrapping it efficiently.
A strange heat blooms, electric, forbidden, my breath catching as our eyes lock, the spark between us a live wire,
Then, he sat back.
“I need to inspect the rest of your body for injuries,” he said simply.
My breath caught.
“No,” I said quickly, panic flaring in my chest. “I... I’ll take care of the rest.”
He didn’t flinch.
