Page 96 of Star Claimed Omega
‘You’re not alone anymore,’ he rasped. ‘You understand me,mi sol? You’re not some ghost story hidden in the cracks of a broken galaxy. Not to me. Not now.’
Her chest heaved. She didn’t know what scared her more, her past catching up to her, or the man in front of her willing to risk everything to help her face it.
‘Just promise me something,’ she whispered.
He lifted her chin with two fingers. ‘Anything.’
‘Don’t make me choose between you and surviving.’
A muscle ticked in his jaw. His voice was raw when he answered. ‘cariño, I’ll make sure you never have to.’
She took a ragged inhale, unsure if his promise was one he’d keep.
SANTIAGO
Soleil sat like a statue on the edge of the couch, her back rigid, her hands clenched in her lap.
She wasn’t here anymore. Not quite.
Her gaze turned glassy, as if she were unseeing of the world around her, not even Santi kneeling before her.
Her eyes gazed beyond him at what he imagined was her ugly past and torment.
His heart twisted at the thought.
Her fingers trembled, and her wrists spasmed once, twice.
Before she squeezed them, she bit her lip to trap a cry of pain that tried to escape her throat.
Santi caught the spasms, parsed them.
It was as if an invisible knife wrenched inside her, slicing her internally.
Hr snarled, loathing the distress and suffering plain on Soleil’s face.
We may have pushed her too far, Miral whispered into the private neural node in his cortex, her tone soft with concern.
Santi’s stomach dropped.
Fokk. He closed his eyes and ran a hand down his face, the ache in his chest blooming like fire.
Soleil seemed to be disappearing in real time, dissolving into shame, silence, and suffering.
Take her back to the cabin, please. Tuck her in. I can’t leave. I’ve too much on my plate.
Of course.
Santi leaned into his woman, speaking slowly and calmly, as if soothing a frightened wild creature.
‘Soleil,’ he rasped, his utterance warmed as best he could manage. ‘Mi sol. I won’t push you anymore about your family. Not now. Not until you’re ready. I want you back in my house, where it’s quiet. Where it’s safe.’
Soleil’s eyes turned to him, but they were empty, stricken, so lost, and his soul lurched at the misery within their beautiful depths.
‘Miral will stay with you,’ he went on. ‘She won’t leave till you tell her you’re okay. You don’t need to do anything else. Just rest. That’s all I ask. Does that work for you?’
A long, heavy moment passed.
Then, slowly, like sunlight cracking through the dark, Soleil’s pupils refocused. She blinked. Her face flushed crimson, and her chin dropped in shame.
