One heart can only take so much pain, right? Well tell that to my broken one that appears to be falling by the minute for another hopeless case.
Whether love was healing the holes, or just falling for her with all the shattered pieces I had left, only time would tell.
When I woke up the next morning, I was surprised to have had a peaceful night. Not only did I not have any nightmares, but I actually felt rested.
I went to quietly move out of bed when I noticed my arm was reaching behind me, with something touching my fingers. Without disrupting a sleeping Rose next to me, I turned over to look at my hand, which held hers inside it. In the night we must have sought out each other’s touch. She calmed me while I slept, and in return I kept her nightmares away.
I was undoubtedly fucked.
Chapter Seventeen
Rose
The morning sun was peeking through the window in front of the bed when I finally woke up, I rolled over just to see if Draco had stayed in bed with me, but as expected he was already gone. Probably out chopping wood or something.
I smiled as I snuggled into the pillow, feeling so much better this morning. I could feel residual emotions inside me that had come from Draco last night. Some point after we both fell asleep, the nightmares started to creep back in my head, but then I felt something touch my hand, and they were gone. Throughout the night I felt an exchange of emotions between our touch. We were soothing each other without realizing it. I only knew because I could still feel a little bit of his emotions stirring in my veins, and none of them were bad.
My hands reached above my head as I stretched my body out, I somehow felt refreshed and ready to start a new day off right. Then the soreness from yesterday’s training starting screaming throughout my body. It was tolerable, and the stretching helped some.
First stop, was finding Draco to see if he would take me to headquarters. What happened to Josie was tragic, and I wanted to learn to fight so that I can protect as many people as I could.
I stepped out onto the porch and searched for him around the yard and animal pastures, but there was no sign of him. A gust of wind blew across my skin and I shivered, signaling that I was not ready to be outside yet. Fall was approaching winter, and I needed to really break out my sweaters soon.
I closed the door behind me and decided to see if he was in his darkroom. I knocked a few times but heard nothing from the other side.
Okay, so he wasn’t anywhere to be found. His truck was out front, and he knew I was still here, so I know he would be back. Instead of sitting around doing nothing, I made my way to the kitchen and started making us some breakfast. I noticed there weren’t any dirty dishes in the sink so I was guessing he hadn’t eaten yet.
Just as I was pushing the eggs out of the skillet onto the plates, he walked in through the front door wearing jeans, boots, and a long-sleeved gray shirt. His hair was tied back, and his beard had been trimmed back to his jaw line. He looked delicious.
“Morning!” I set our plates on the table, and he looked up from slipping out of his boots to my grinning face.
“I figured you hadn’t eaten, so I made some for you too.” I smiled, and felt slightly awkward with him still standing in the doorway, staring at me. His blue eyes were lit with uncontrolled emotion, for once. I read what was in them without using my powers. I walked over to the sink to wash my hands, not wanting to see that look on his face, knowing well that he didn’t want to do anything about it. I really didn’t blame him. Like I told him last night, there was only so much a heart could take. His had taken too much over his lifetime.
I hadn’t heard him walking toward me until he gripped my arm and spun me around. His hands moved down to my waist and hoisted me up onto the counter. My eyes were wide as he maneuvered himself between my legs, my eyes on his while his lips descended onto my own.
I’d never been kissed with this much fervor and passion. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and threw myself into him completely. His lips were hungry, and I gave him the feast he was craving. Back and forth, a sweet devotion of each other’s mouths. My fingers scratched at his neck, and his hands moved to my ass, pressing me against his stomach. We were feral with need for one another. He lost his control over the lust that he’d been battling and I reveled in that loss.
Our breathing was heavy, and a small moan crawled up from an unfamiliar part of me. I’d never felt so alive, so raw for a man. Draco was almost too much, and yet he was just what I needed.
Emotions from both of us were scattered inside my body.
Pure carnal lust.
Fear.
Adoration.
And—
Anger.
Anger?
Why was he angry? I certainly wasn’t the one that was feeling that particular emotion. I pulled back and looked him in the eyes. He still had the look of lust but there was something else swirling in there. God, was he angry at himself for kissing me?
“I need a moment.” My voice held no hint of sexual breathlessness. He quickly took a step back as I hopped off the counter. I felt embarrassed, and ashamed. I did not deserve a kiss that took my breath away to have any anger laced in it. Especially not a first kiss.
Without another word I walked past him to the bathroom, to hide for a moment.
What an asshole. I sat on the covered toilet and brought my fingers up to my swollen lips.
Out of all the men that I kissed, this one left me feeling the worst. With the others, I felt their distaste for my birthmark, yet none of them ever felt angry about kissing me. None of them.
Then there was Draco, a man I felt connected to, a man I was truly beginning to trust. So what if he lost control over his lust for me? Still doesn’t give him any excuse to kiss me and hate himself for it.
I wrapped my hands around my waist. Feelings of being used crept over me, and I truly disliked them.
After taking a few breaths to calm myself, I decided that I could be an adult about this and move on. We kissed, and there wasn’t a need to bring it up until I really digested it. He would know that he hurt me, because keeping in pain only made things worse. But right now, I was highly emotional, so it wasn’t the time. I needed to burn off some of that potent energy.
I walked back out to the kitchen and sat down to eat my food. Draco was still standing in the kitchen, feeling remorse.
Good. He should feel like shit right now.
“Rose.” He moved over to a chair on the other side, the one from his darkroom that he kept there since our breakfast.
“You hurt my feelings, but we can move on. Obviously, you didn’t mean to do that, so let’s just forget it. Eat breakfast, and then you can take me to the training room. I don’t want to lose a day,” I told him, and with that ended our conversation for the rest of the morning.
Draco drove me to my house first, so I could change into clothes that actually fit me before we left for headquarters.
“Wait here,” he said sternly as we parked in the first-level lot behind the restaurant. I looked toward the door and saw a thin kid that was probably only sixteen with spiky blond hair and skateboarder clothes. He was looking at Draco’s truck with a scared smile on his face. The whole scene looked odd. Draco climbed out of the car and slowly walked over to the kid, who raised his hands in the air, as if pleading for Draco not to hurt him. I rolled my eyes and stepped out of the car.
“Draco, stop scaring the kid,” I called out. Draco looked back at me like he was pissed I got out of the car before he said to. Whatever. I wasn’t in the mood for him right now.
“Oh, man, thank you, Rose,” the kid piped up, looking between Draco and me.
“Here, I have a card, and my own number. Phillip called me in last night. I’m part of the team now.” He smiled, and I could tell he was very proud of himself for this accomplishment.
“Follow me, then.” I held out my hand for his, and he looked at it first before taking my hand. Obviously he had been warned about my powers, but I had no idea if
it was Phillip who warned him or maybe our new enemy. I was about to find out. His green eyes crinkled from his smile, and all I felt from him was acceptance.
Draco was giving me an angry stare as I walked the kid into the restaurant and sat down at a table. There wasn’t anyone here but the manager, who gave me a nod and continued the process of opening up the kitchen. He was paid generously to not ask questions, and I half-expected him to have powers, for Phillip to have put him in this position, but I hadn’t had the time to figure it all out yet.
“Okay, kid, let’s start with your name and then you can tell us your story.” I smiled and delved inside all of his emotions.
Chapter Eighteen
Draco
AJ was the kid’s name; he was fifteen, and apparently a super computer genius. Phillip had found him living on the streets, and put him to work at thirteen. He’s been working for him ever since.
AJ said that Phillip had to leave town, and that AJ was to start work today at headquarters. He would also be the apartments’ first resident. Even though he wasn’t gifted by the gods’ powers, he was blessed in the genes category. He was just a super smart kid. Rose confirmed that there were absolutely no bad emotions in his body.
“I’m pretty sure he isn’t even capable of doing bad things,” she confessed to me as we left the table and walked toward the elevator. I looked him up and down, and felt like I could confirm her assessment. He was a scrawny little thing, dressed in punk clothes. Although I’d come to learn every person was capable of doing the wrong thing, there were the inherently good, the intrinsically bad, and both. It was actually a good thing to have a mix of good and bad. There were some things that good people couldn’t do without it eating away at their soul. A person with both good and bad was able to make the hard decisions and protect the good without losing themselves.
Rose went about showing AJ around while I headed straight toward the training facility.
I fucked up this morning with Rose, and now who knew what was going on in her head. She was pissed at me, that was clear. But I doubted she was pissed for the right reason.
She felt everything I was feeling while I kissed her, and I knew which emotion she decided to latch onto instead of all the good ones.
Yeah, I was angry. I was angry at myself for not giving into her lips sooner, and I was angry that I couldn’t fight her anymore. In just the short time of knowing her, she had become everything to me, whether I wanted that or not.
She didn’t understand what this meant to me. This meant more pain. One day Rose would die, hopefully after living a long, happy life. Then I would be left in a world without her. I’d thought before that losing her would hurt more than anyone I’d lost before, and I knew it was true.
There was no going back now, especially after having her lips this morning. She was fire beneath my fingers, and I signed the deal to burn forever as long as I could keep touching her.
When I walked in the door, I saw her there and wanted her like that every morning. Wearing my clothes, in my home, and greeting me with her brilliant smile. I was so overtaken with the feeling that my feet were moving before my brain had caught up. By the time I stood behind her, I couldn’t stand the thought of not kissing her. I was physically in pain from resisting her, and I didn’t want to anymore. Still didn’t. The wall I tried to keep up around her was gone, crumbled at her feet in my kitchen.
I headed for the machines and went to work.
Rose could sit in her annoyance with me for a little bit longer, but soon I would set her straight. She needed to understand what this was between us.
I knew she wanted me at least for pleasure, but I needed to make sure she knew there was more at stake besides our bodies.
Sweat was starting to create a light sheen over my body by the time Rose walked in sporting her tight workout pants and tank top. Her shoulder-length hair was pulled back into two short pigtails, giving her the look of someone who wanted to appear as a badass but was more cute than anything. I found myself smiling for the rest of my squat reps.
“Treadmill for twenty minutes then meet me on the mat,” I told her, and she didn’t even look at me as she walked over to the treadmill. Feisty, and right now that was doing something for me. It was like her kiss had glued a piece of my broken soul together. I felt like smiling and being around her, even if she was trying to avoid me. I wanted to make her smile, and be the reason pink blush rose on her cheeks.
The twenty minutes went by quickly, and then I was standing in front of her on the mat.
“Time to learn some defensive maneuvers.”
She gave me a curt nod and waited for instructions. Even though there were other moves I could have started with, my need to touch her took precedence.
I began telling her how to get out of a hold from all directions, then in slow motion we would work through them until she got used to the movements.
I felt her body stiffen every time I wrapped my arms around her, whispering the steps to follow against the side of her head. I knew she was reading my amusement, and it was making her feel defiant.
“Okay. I’m ready. Let’s try it faster,” she announced breathlessly. My emotions were doing a number on her. Well, I wasn’t hiding anything now. I’d found something that made me feel like actually living life, and accepted it, and I was going to surround myself in that feeling as much as I could.
“I’m not going to tell you which way I will come from. Your attacker won’t. Close your eyes, Rose.” Her name may have flown out from my lips on a purr. I watched her close her eyes, trusting me as I moved around. Her head tilted as she tried to listen for me, but I had perfected the art of silence a long time ago. I could move as a ghost, and strike like a cobra—fast and swift, with absolute precision.
Stepping in front of her, I took in her face before reaching my hands up to her neck, then bringing her body toward me. She did as I had instructed her to do, and she managed to get my hands away from her neck by turning to the side and using her arm to push it down and then push my body away. Her eyes opened, and I told her to close them immediately. She needed to rely on senses other than her sight. When one of the senses was down, others would start to compensate for the loss.
My next attack came from the right. She tried to get out of my hold, but instead of focusing on the steps she was supposed to follow, she was choosing to pay attention to my emotions instead. Wrong move, sweet Rose.
With very little resistance, I took her down to the floor. We hadn’t learned grappling yet, but I admired her for trying to get out of my hold on the ground.
“You cheated!” she spat.
“Your attackers will cheat. You have an amazing power, but it can be used against you. You have to work on blocking it out. Once you have complete control over yourself, then you might be able to use it as a weapon, if needed. Right now, it’s a chink in your armor.” I rolled off of her, but apparently she thought she could attack me first, trying to prove she wasn’t as helpless as I was probably making her feel.
She tried to tackle me down, but I moved away from her easily and caught her body before she ate mat too hard.
“You suck.” She tried to push away from me, but I didn’t budge.
“You are vulnerable right now. It’s fact. But we work at it until you are the warrior I see on the inside” She stared at me, my words seeping into her soul.
“We need to talk about earlier,” I stated and then she really started to wiggle away from me.
“Not now, Draco!” She tried one of her new moves to get out of my hold but it wasn’t the right one for the position. Add in my size and strength, and there was very little she could do at the moment. If I were another man that didn’t have a wall against her powers when I wanted to, she could have used that to get out. But I did, so that was out, too.
“Yes, now. I gave you time to come to your senses, but you haven’t yet. So we are going to talk about this morning and a lot of other things that need talking about.” I was going to ge
t straight to the point.
“I hurt your feelings this morning, but if you would have let me explain then you would have found out what my emotions were truly about, versus you assuming you knew.”
Her lips formed a tight line, but she stayed still so I kept talking.
“I was angry that I waited so long to kiss your soft lips, and yeah, I was a little angry that I couldn’t fight you anymore. I’ve been through so much, but once I had you, there was no going back. The pain of something happening to you will destroy me. It will be worse than anything I’ve felt to this day. I know it, I’ve lived long enough that I can just tell things, and from the beginning I just knew that our destinies were intertwining right there at my chicken coop. I wanted to fight it, and I did. But seeing you in my home, with your bright smile, and beautiful aura around you, broke that desire to fight.”
Her tight lips had loosened. Her face was completely lax. I’d stunned her, apparently.
“You saw the man I could be, and I see what we could become. Both have an extraordinary chance of happening because of you.”
I let go of my grip around her, giving her space if she needed it. She most likely wasn’t expecting this type of confession from me. How could she suspect all that was going to come out of my mouth? But, she needed to hear it. I’d decided there was no going back; I had no other choice.
“I don’t know what to say.” The words fell out of her slack mouth; she was just looking at me, trying to compose herself.
She hadn’t moved away from me, so I took the chance to do something that I had wanted to do since that first day I met her. When my lips brushed against her birthmark, I felt her body melt.
“You’re beautiful,” I whispered against her skin. God, that felt as good as I thought it would.
When I pulled back to look into her eyes, she was on the move, and my lips were her target.
There was no shock in my system from her advance. I was on the same page as her: consume.
Dawn (Hero Society Book 1) Page 8
