Page 140 of You Only Love Twice
Gemma's sudden fury drained out of her, and she opened her closed fist, splaying it wide across his chest, gasping a little at the sudden fierce ache of pain. Of understanding.
For all she'd lost, this man had lost more.
He'd lost himself.
"I didn't want you to hate me. I didn't know what to do—how to tell you. It was a shock to discover he'd had a hand in forging both of us, and then there was no time," Obsidian admitted. "I have been so lost, Gemma. Everything I ever believed.... It means nothing. Everywhere I look, I see an enemy trying to manipulate me, even Malloryn. You have been my one constant. The only guiding star I could see in any of this, but even then I wasn't sure how much I could trust you."
She swallowed the hard lump in her throat. "Balfourusedme to hurt Malloryn. He knew it would be the one thing that could twist the knife in Malloryn's chest."
"I know." Gentle fingers brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "He was the one who demanded we have you assassinated and delivered to Malloryn's doorstep to find. It was the first moment of my awakening. I have never felt such rage before, and I couldn't understand why. But it led me back to you. As much as I hate him for what he's done to you, I will never regret finding you again."
His head dipped,lips brushing against her ear. "I trust you, as much as I can. I trust your judgment. But to give so much of myself goes against my very nature. I will try to do better, I promise. If you could ever forgive me?"
Gemma turned her mouth to his, her hand clasped over his cheek. The roughened trace of his stubble—something she'd never felt upon his jaw before—reminded her this man was real. Flawed. And hers.
"There is nothing to forgive," she breathed, pressing her forehead to his. "And perhaps, once all is said and done, we will have a chance to learn together. For you are not the only one who knows nothing of trust."
Gemma could barely breathe as she waited for his response.
He grabbed her by the back of the neck, his mouth crashing down upon hers. Claiming her in a kiss both furious and demanding. She could sense the need in him, the question he asked.Be mine. Please.Gemma grabbed a fistful of his hair, her tongue thrusting into his mouth, answering as best she could.
Always.
She'd never understood what lay between them. Why him? Why, of all the men who'd sought her heart, had he been the one who stole it?
The second they'd met, she'd been drawn to him. She'd always had the sense he could see right through her carefully constructed words and flirtations. A single glance from those dangerous gray eyes stripped her to the bone, as if only he saw the real Gemma. The little girl who'd learned to lock her true self away, even as she so desperately wanted someone else to see it.
Perhaps it had been her innate conscience realizing she had met the other half of her soul. Like finding like. On the surface, they couldn't be more different if they tried. Obsidian held himself apart, watching the world with cold, wary eyes. But she'd walked the same path as he. Buried her pain and rage beneath a smile and a laugh. Thrown herself into living her life as completely as she could, determined to beat the odds others had given her, even as nothing ever felt completely real. Different lives, yes, but still the same, at heart. Sheunderstoodthis man, in a way she'd never understood another living person.
They broke apart with a pant, though Gemma was loathe to destroy the moment. She wanted more. She wanted to allow passion to steal away all her hurt, all her pain, but that would only be using him in this moment.
When they came together again, she wanted their moment to be about them. Nothing else. No hurt. No pain. No rage. Only a consummation of love, where she could show him the secrets that lurked deep in her heart.
"We need to go," she breathed.
Obsidian nodded, drawing back from her, and looking right through her as if he saw the words imprinted on her soul. He shifted out from underneath her, slinking toward the bars. "Just in case the queen makes a hasty decision she can't take back."
"What are you doing?" Gemma whispered, as he set his hands around the bars of the cell. "Obsidian? I thought you had a lock pick."
"I like your 'magic'," he told her, granting her the faintest of smiles. "But this works for me."
Gemma staggered to her feet, her face puffy and her lips swollen. "You won't break the bars! They're reinforced and were designed specifically with blue bloods in mind.... Oh."
The bars were warping as he flexed his arms. Muscle rippled beneath the tight-fitting black coat he wore. "Why do you think I insisted upon staying with you?" His teeth were clenched together. He wrenched the bars almost half a foot apart. Another inch. Just wide enough to ease through.
Obsidian slipped through the gap, his chest scraping the bars. "Coming? Your enemy's not going to come to you."
Gemma took a shaky step. "Coming. The only problem is we're in Thorne Tower. This place is locked up tighter than a nun's drawers. How are we going to get out of here—without killing any more of the guards?"
Obsidian smiled as he stepped back into the hallway, the shadows of the bars rippling over his face. "Trust me. I have exceptional skills at getting in and out of places undetected. Now I get to use them for good."
* * *
"I want her head,"the queen snarled as Malloryn staggered into the council chambers, his arm slung over Charlie's shoulders.
Queen Alexandra stood at the head of the massive circular table in the center of the room. The original one had been deliberately burned when the queen regained her throne and overthrew her husband, and this replacement was made of polished mahogany and jokingly referred to by several of the councilors as the Round Table.
"Hear me out first," he managed to gasp as Charlie directed him toward the table. "It wasn't her fault."
