Page 49 of Blind Devotion
Strapped in, I felt like I’d been dropped into a vast unknown with nowhere to go, so completely and utterly lost. We cruised down the drive, turning left or right at random. At some point, we must have reached a road with other cars. They honked. People yelled. Tires screeched. Our driver braked, the seat belt digging into my shoulder. Left. Right. Front. Back. It was chaos everywhere, that I couldn’t see, couldn’t estimate, couldn’t judge, and it was only going to get worse the moment I got out of this car.
I hadn’t missed my sight in my room in Adrien’s home, not really. The lack of it was simply a part of me there. The room was mine. It was safe and thoroughly investigated by yours truly.
Here, though, there were so many unknowns. Where we were, how fast we were going, what was around us, the dangers I couldn’t anticipate, and the uncertainty of not knowing. Secluded in my little room, I hadn’t realized how much trust I needed to hand over to give up this much control over my life. My thigh bounced. Loud, shallow breaths escaped me, and I clung to the seat edge.
Adrien pressed his thigh against mine. Warm, present, hard, and reassuring. I couldn’t explain why he did it or what it meant…if it was an accident of circumstance or intentional. All I knew was that it allowed me to focus on him and nothing else, and that was the biggest reassurance of all. Oddly, I did trust him. Maybe that was stupid, but he’d seen me through harm already. He was the devil I knew.
I reached for his hand, and he gave it. No flinching away. No avoidance. No words. Just a squeeze of his fingers around mine before letting me find his pulse. I breathed through the steady thump thump that said so much. I was safe with him. His eyes were mine today. He’d not let me flounder. He’d be my guide.
My heart skipped a beat, and I ducked my head away from him to hide the blush warming my cheeks.
Adrien wasn’t the best conversationalist or the most warmhearted, but he cared in his own way. His actions were worth a thousand words.
As foolish as it was, my heartbeat slowed to match his, falling deeper into whatever confusing mess there was between us.
With Adrien ushering me through the radiology center, I wasn’t worried or afraid. The crowds, the echoes of conversations, the squeaks on tile, the beeps of machines, the roll of wheels—none of it bothered me as we walked down hall after hall, not with him at my side.
His hand never released mine, and no one ran into me. If I veered too much one way or the other, he gently nudged me with a push or pull of our interlocked hands. He didn’t treat me as if I were anything less than me.
“Is that woman blind, Papa?” a passing kid asked their parent. I didn’t hear the answer, but I held my head high and shrugged off my unease.
“What kind of scars do you think those hide?” A woman snickered to another before even crossing us.
“Something ghastly, I’d bet. There’s no way someone likehimis with someone likeher.”
They weren’t the first to make comments within earshot, almost as if they thought being blind and deaf were the same thing, but it was the first thing said that tapped into an unknown fear.
I tugged Adrien close and nuzzled against his chest. He froze against me, but I didn’t let that stop me. I couldn’t let it show how much their words hurt.
“No wonder you think sighted women are a lost cause,” I practically purred at him, my voice honeyed and overly sensual. “Some are just so ugly on the inside.”
He didn’t react at first, and I worried he’d ruin the act. One second of hesitation, and then his arm curled around my waist. I flattened my palm against his heart in gratitude.
“Maybe…” he started calmly in a deep rumble. The hair on my arms rose with the thrill of the menace in that one word. “They need a lesson. A permanent one. One my knife and I would be happy to enforce.”
Apparently, I wasn’t a good person because their frightened gasps pleased me way too much. Add in their hurried footsteps, and I was practically bursting with glee.
I laughed and patted his chest. “Oh, you’re good. Who knew fake threats to protect my honor were a kink? You, sir, are a gentleman.”
“They weren’t.”
Confused, I listened to the women scampering away. “They weren’t what?”
“Fake threats.” He held my hand over his heart, his fingers on my pulse. I swore the world slowed. “No one but me is allowed to dim your light.”
I let him guide me blindly through the radiology center, warmed from head to toe with a particular glow emanating around my heart. We checked in, the machine spitting out a ticket—of course it had a number on it I couldn’t see, pretty damn useless, if you asked me. We made our way through the reception area of radiology. It was busier here, a blend of different conversations that weren’t moving around. I ducked my head, overly conscious of the prickling heat still swarming my cheeks like a mad fool.
“You didn’t have to say that.”
“I don’t justsayanything.”
There was something wrong with me, with how flushed his words made me, especially in that deep guttural tone of his.
“You’re full of surprises, grump.”
He scoffed. “No. I see no point in lies.”
“Only threats then?” I teased.
