Page 43 of The First Trial
I looked at her then,reallylooked at her. Smooth, tanned skin dotted with the occasional freckle. A small beauty mark beside her nose and another one beneath her eye. Full, luscious lips I’d already had the pleasure of tasting. Her breasts were large, and I knew from experience that they were comfortable pillows. And they were fun to suck on, too.
Guilt swamped me as her eyelids lowered, her eyes darkening with lust at my perusal of her body. I hated that my heart was taken by a woman who didn’t even want it. Who didn’t even know she had it. Not for the first time, I wished that Enid were that woman. She was gorgeous and loyal, she knew me inside and out, and I trusted her implicitly. And despite my insistence that she knew the score, I was well aware that she was also in love with me, which was more than I could say for Juniper.
Her gaze hardened and her lips thinned when she noticed the change in my demeanour, already knowing where my thoughts had taken me.
‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered dejectedly.
‘Want to tell me about your vision?’ she asked, probably assuming it was a change of subject, but in reality was just rubbing salt in the wound.
‘Which one?’ I asked, scrabbling for a little more time before I projected what I’d seen into the world. It would be more real then, and once I acknowledged it, I wouldn’t be able to pretend I hadn’t seen it.
She tilted her head to the side, her brilliant mind already starting to piece things together. She was too smart for her own good sometimes.
‘They were abouther,weren’t they?’
I was suddenly very focused on dirt covering the hem of my jeans, but I nodded to confirm her suspicions.
Seeing my utterly defeated, pathetically sad reaction, her hardness softened, and she placed a supportive hand on my arm. ‘What happened?’
I took a shaky breath in a failed attempt to ground myself, but I pushed ahead anyway. There was no point in prolonging the inevitable any longer.
‘I keep getting visions of her… with other men.’
‘Oh, Thorne…’
I hated the pity in her tone, anger rising in me that she felt the need to pity me at all. But I pushed it to the side. She didn’t deserve to have me take out my frustrations on her.
‘This was the third one. The third man. I think…’ I hesitated, struggling to get the words past the lump in my throat. ‘I think she has to choose one of them, but her decision will have an impact on us all.’
‘What? How?’ she asked, stunned. And then her nose wrinkled in a sneer. ‘Whyher?’
I shrugged half-heartedly. ‘I don’t know. I just keep seeing her having sex with these men, and none of them are Human.’
‘Do you know who?’ she asked tentatively.
‘The first one was that purple Deamon that tried to keep her from stepping through the portal. The second one… I don’t know, I think he was a Shifter, but I didn’t recognise him at all. This last one was one of the Fae that walked out of the forest with her when the portal called to them.’
‘Shit. That’s… Fuck, Hawthorne, I don’t even know what to say.’
‘There’s not really anythingtosay. The Fates are laughing at me.’
‘You don’t think they want you to help her choose, do you?’ she asked, horrified.
‘I think that’s exactly what they want me to do,’ I muttered glumly.
‘No,’ she said firmly, and my head snapped up in surprise.
‘No what?’
‘If it’s that important for her to choose out of these men, then I’ll be your middleman. You won’t have to talk to her about this at all if you don’t want to. I can relay any messages you need to tell her.’
I shot her a small smile, enjoying the way she was trying to take care of me. To protect me. ‘No, it’s okay. You don’t have to do that. I’m a big boy, and I’ve known for a long time that nothing was ever going to come from my feelings for her. I can’t keep running from it.’
She eyed me suspiciously. ‘Are you sure…?’
I nodded decisively. ‘I’m sure.’
‘Well, the offer still stands. If it ever gets too much for you, I can take over any necessary interactions.’
