Page 48 of Blind Devotion
Marie was far too chipper in the morning. After the night I had, I wasn’t ready for it. First the nightmare, then tossing and turning all night with vivid dreams of Adrien climbing in bed with me and ravishing me so long and thoroughly that I forgot the possible reality that my nightmares were real memories.
Her thin heels rapped through the room, first toward the far end to the little table where Adrien had folded his origami days ago. Like clockwork, I heard the breakfast tray tap and slide onto it. The plates, silverware, and glass cup gently clanked. The mouthwatering smells of coffee, toasted bagel, and bacon, plus the tang of orange juice, made it easier to get up despite the fatigue. Familiar with the room’s arrangement by now, I crossed it with barely any more soreness in my legs.
“Oh, very good,” she said, clapping her hands. “Look at you. A day or so more, and you shall be sprinting like a gazelle.”
Today, when I went to pick up my morning coffee, something rough and crinkly met my fingers.
“What’s this?”
“I wondered the same. Looks like atigre.” Tiger. “I was told to keep it on the tray for you.”
I felt around the edges and points, the curves and bends. An origami piece from Adrien, I just knew it.
A warm and fluffy sensation bubbled up inside, and my face heated. It wasn’t the butterfly or the lion I requested. It was different, and that was all right by me. It was our own thing, instead of what belonged in a memory. Memories of a man, sometimes boy, also named Adrien, who cared for me and whom I wholeheartedly once loved. Those same niggling doubts came back with a vengeance. My mysterious captor and my dream man couldn’t be the same person, could they?
I shook my head. I was being foolish.
Marie’s steps moved toward the balcony doors. She unlocked them and opened the wooden shutters that needed a little greasing. Fresh air with a tinge of seawater filled the room on a comfortable, warm breeze.
“Now, we cannot have the boss waiting,” she said, beating the curtains. “We need to get you dressed and prepped. He will take you to your appointment.”
With a bagel at my lips, I froze. “He will?”
Alizé hadn’t been lying.
“I don’t question the boss.”
So, the big ol’ grump was making time for me and during the day to boot. I liked that, maybe a little too much, considering our situationship. I tamped it down, schooled my small smile, and ate my breakfast without another word.
Marie helped me pick out a sundress with short-heeled sandals for the occasion. I took the time to apply a little light makeup—it seemed at least that required more muscle memory than anything else. Once ready, Marie led me through the house, down the stairs, and to the entrance. The sun warmed my skin,and I tilted my head up to meet it. A sea breeze fiddled with my hair.
A woman’s hands wrapped around my shoulders.
“You look beautiful.” Alizé pecked both my cheeks before her mouth met my ear. “I told you he was taking you.”
“Alizé.” The name was a warning on Adrien’s lips. Deep and penetrating.
“Don’t you worry. I’m not corrupting her. Enjoy your time together.”
“It’s just a medical appointment.”
“If that were all it was,p’tit frangin, you wouldn’t be going.”
He grunted.
“Come on,” he said to me.
His arm came to the small of my back before wrapping around my waist, firm and steady. He led me down a couple more steps and walked through gravel. Not once did he let me trip. We slipped into the back seat, a gulf of space left between us as if he’d not just been touching me, as if we’d not spent hours talking the past few nights, as if I hadn’t felt his lips against my skin. The door clonked shut, and the car rumbled to life. It smelled of crisp leather and pine, completely unfamiliar and disorienting.
“Your sister could’ve taken me.”
“My sister is the reason we’re in this mess.”
“The mess being me?”
He didn’t have to answer, but I thought we’d made progress over the last few days. That was boosted by what Alizé told me and the excitement Marie cast out when waking me up. Only to be given the cold shoulder.
I’d made it clear last night that I was done with this. I was prepared to give him a piece of my mind, a good, thorough slap of common sense and courtesy, but the moment the car began moving, I lost all words, suddenly adrift.
