Page 76 of Firethorne
“Because... you’re different. Because this is different.”
I paused, taking in what he’d said. Then I asked him, “Which one is it?I’mdifferent or the situation? Because none of this is making sense, Damien.” And I wanted him to make it make sense. I wanted to know what he was thinking, what he was feeling. What he felt about me.
He rested his cheek against mine and said in his deep, gravelly voice, “I love it when you say my name.”
“Then I won’t say it again. Not until you tell me what the fuck is going on,” I snapped, goading him like I always did. But in the back of my mind, a gentle, hesitant voice asked,is that all you love?
He gave a gruff, low chuckle.
“My father sent me away for a few days on business. I couldn’t get out of it. It would’ve looked too suspicious. But I had eyes on you. I’ve always got eyes on you. You’re more than a fucking job to me, Maya.”
And in that moment, I knew the strings that bound me to him, bound him to me just as tightly. In reality, there was no taming a man like Damien. He was still a Firethorne, after all.Like lightning in a bottle, you had to savour the magic that was uniquely him. And yet, despite being a Firethorne, he had moments of kindness, softness, a thoughtfulness that belied the brutal upbringing he’d endured.
And he had them with me.
“I was here for days, on my own. I thought I’d never get out of here. That I’d never see anyone again. I thought... that I’d never see you again.” I spoke calmer now, even though a fire raged in my belly and my heart. “If something happens to you out there, what happens to me? Because I tried to get out of here, and I tried?—”
“Nothing will ever happen to you.” He let go of my right wrist and began stroking the hair from my face. “There’s an escape plan in place if something happens to me. You’d be out of here and in another country, living a completely new life within a week. I’ve made arrangements.”
I pressed my free hand against the wall and said, “Then let’s go. If that’s the arrangement, let’s go now.”
Another stroke of my hair and he said, “You know I can’t do that.”
“Damien.” I spoke his name breathlessly, like a plea, and he smiled, twisting my hair as he hummed in response. “What is going to happen here? Tell me, how does this end?”
Tell me what you want.
His hand worked my hair, twisting and twirling it until he’d pulled it into a ponytail of sorts, gathered in his fist, and then he tugged, pulling my head back as he yanked hard.
“Is it so wrong that I want to keep you here for a while, and see where this could go?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. Hope blossoming in my chest.
“I mean, that I can’t ignore the fact that we’re drawn together. Every time I see you, I feel these... urges. Like thenight of the party. I could’ve walked you to that door, shown you who Lysander and Miriam really were, and walked away, but I couldn’t. And deep down, I think you know yourself that you didn’t want me to. I had to touch you, because I knew, that night I knew that you were mine. I touched you because I couldn’t stop myself. But you wanted me to touch you, didn’t you? We’re like magnets, you and me. We fight, repel each other, but when we work together, when those fucking stars align, that magnetic forcefield is fucking unstoppable. Nothing can break it.”
“But you won’t leave with me.”
“I have to see this through to the end. You know I do. But I’m not a fool, Maya. I know exactly what I want. And I saw you... that night, when I stood outside your bedroom window and watched you get yourself off, your fingers buried inside that tight little pussy. You were thinking of me that night, weren’t you? You were imagining me, wanting me. And I wanted you so fucking badly it hurt.”
I swallowed, barely able to breathe.
“I watched you make yourself come,” he went on. “And it took every ounce of restraint I had not to smash that fucking window, climb through and take what I wanted. What was mine.”
He was right. I had thought about him, but the spiteful part of me couldn’t help but blurt out, “You didn’t stay long enough to save me that night, though, did you? You stood and watched, but if you’d been there moments later, you could’ve stopped them when they came for me.” I hated myself sometimes. I hated that my mouth sprang into action before my brain could engage.
Why was I blaming him?
He’d done everything for me.
“And there’s not a minute goes by that I don’t hate myself for that,” he hissed as his body pressed closer to mine. “But life goeson. We won. And now, I’ve waited long enough. I want to claim what’s mine.”
“Which is?”
“You.”
His words were like boulders crashing through my restraint. His body a wall of heat, warming my stone-cold heart. Damien had been an angel and demon to me. And it’s hard to let go of the demons that haunt you when they’re the ones who catch you when you fall. And he had, caught me, that is, each and every time. Even when I didn’t know he was doing it. He was there. Always.
I could feel myself folding, softening, and as the whisps of anger inside me withered away, turning into something else, I whispered, “You’re all I’ve got, Damien. I don’t have anyone else. Only you. My whole world revolves around you.”
