Page 26 of Blazing Desires
“Blaze! You can’t defy him, he’ll punish us. He’ll punishme, and I’ll never be able to leave this place again. Please!”
My eyes snap open and find her panic-stricken ones on me, her breathing heavy. The fact that I’ve caused this reaction has my heart constricting. The need to ease her panic and calm her down takes over. I turn to face her fully and hold her by her shoulders, and she winces. My hands immediately leave her as she dips her chin to her chest and shrinks herself, her shoulders curling inwards.
“I need you to take a slow breath for me, Davina. And then we will need to talk about what just happened. In through your nose and out through your mouth. Good girl. Again.”
We repeat the technique until her body relaxes from the protective ball. I’d completely forgotten how she had winced yesterday when her father put his arm around her shoulders.
“I won’t do anything without checking with your dad first, I promise. Now, I’m going to take a look at your shoulders, okay? I need to see where you’re hurt so I can treat you. Give me permission to move your top, love.”
I wait for her consent, the seconds passing are agonisingly slow. When I’m about to give up hope that she will respond, she dips her chin once.
“I need your words, Mea Divina.”
“You can look.”
Her voice is small as she whispers, and I prepare myself for what I am about to find. I take a deep breath and slowly move towards her until we are toe to toe. My height difference makes it easy to view her shoulders on both sides without moving.
“I’m going to move your t-shirt out of the way so I can see.”
I don’t want to do anything unexpected or give her a reason to stop me. I ease the neck of her t-shirt to the side, exposing creamy white skin with a smattering of freckles. At first, I don’t see anything on the tops of her shoulders, so I pull the shirt down toward her chest and the edge of a bruise appears. I exposeher skin further and see the thumbprint-shaped bruise staring back at me.
I keep my rage to myself and repeat the process to expose the back of her shoulder. Peering over I can see the outline of fingerprints painted in purple and red. I check her other shoulder and find the same.
“You need painkillers and ice, the same for your face while we’re at it. I’ll message the kitchen and get some sent up. We’re not going anywhere until we do.”
Davina only tugs away from me and puts her shirt back into place. My fists clench at the loss of touch and the need to hurt someone.
“Who did this to you?”
She wraps her arms around herself but doesn’t say anything to me. Whoever she’s protecting, they don’t fucking deserve it. I want to shake the answer out of her, to confirm my suspicions, but I stay where I am. I pull my phone from my sweats and fire off a text to the staff requesting the things I need before pocketing it again.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I soothe. “Come here, love.”
I open my arms and wait for her to come to me. At first, her pretty face is marred with confusion until comprehension replaces it and she steps timidly into my arms. I slowly wrap mine around her and hold her.
She tucks her head against my chest, her non-injured cheek resting against my bare skin. I have one hand on her lower back and the other in the middle of her shoulder blades, careful not to touch her bruised skin while I hold her to me.
I place a soft kiss on her head before resting my cheek on top. Her hands stay wrapped around herself, but I don’t mind. Holding her close to me like this fills a void I’d ignored long ago.
I’ll take whatever she’s willing to give me.
We stay pressed to each other until the knock at the door signals my request has arrived. She pulls away from me to allow me to get to the door.
“Take a seat, love.”
I watch her take a seat, and once I’m satisfied that she isn’t going anywhere I answer the door, checking all is clear before taking the bag of provisions I’d asked for. Wandering back over to Davina, I sit next to her and the warmth of her skin next to mine has me suppressing a shiver. I empty the contents of the bag and grab the painkillers from the array.
“Here, take two of these.”
I hand her the bottle after unscrewing the lid. She drops two pills into her delicate hand and passes the bottle back to me. I cap it and reach for her drink, passing it to her. She swallows and I can’t help but watch the way her throat moves.
Everything about this woman has captivated me.
I shake my head slightly to stop myself staring and pull the ice packs out. “This one is for your face.”
I take her right hand and place the small pack into it before guiding it to her cheek. Her eyes follow our hands until she can’t see them anymore and she flicks them to my face. I struggle to discern the emotion playing out across her delicate features.
She breaks eye contact first and I pull the other two ice packs out. These are bigger, and I gently lay each one over the tops of her shoulders. She shivers from the cold now seeping into her bones.
