Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 94782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“Where is it?” Calder demands.
“It doesn’t matter,” my mother says. “Because Thor is going to dispose of it, and he’s going to make me a promise.”
I stand and turn away, fighting the urge to pace. Dr. Blom watches me as my mother makes her decree.
“Promise me you’re not going anywhere, my darling. No matter what, even on your hardest days, you will keep fighting. Can you do that for me? Can you give me your word?”
When I say nothing, she goes on.
“I won’t have any peace until I know you’re okay. I can’t leave you here like this. Please, sweetheart.”
My eyes pinch shut, and I wish I could start this day all over again. I wish that Calder never told her. But it isn’t just her. It’s Ella too. The guilt is eating at me. They both threw a wrench into my plan, and everything is all fucked up, and I don’t know what else there is to say. If I make her this promise, I’m breaking the one I made to myself. But I don’t see any other alternative.
“I can only promise to try.”
“You will,” she says without a doubt. “And don’t you worry about your father, I will deal with him. As for Lavinia—”
My attention snaps back to her.
“I made a mistake,” she says. “That has become painfully obvious. And I am making it clear right now that I don’t want you to marry that girl, Thorsen. Promise me you won’t.”
Calder chuckles, and despite the gravity of the situation, even I can find some humor in that too.
“I won’t marry her,” I promise.
“All I want for you, my son, is to follow your heart. Wherever that may lead you.”
Calder pins me with his gaze, adding, “I think you already know where that is.”
28
Ella
“Thorsen?”
My eyes roam over the shadow lingering above the bed, but the room is so dark, it’s impossible to make out his features. I’m on the verge of fear when he pulls off the blankets and flips on the bedside lamp. He looks haunted in the soft orange glow, and it’s obvious that whatever happened tonight, he’s been through hell.
“Is your mother okay?” I sit up and reach out to touch him, but he pushes me back onto the bed.
As he stands there, eyes on fire, I’m not quite certain whether I should run or beg for mercy. But when he reaches out for my face, his touch is full of reverence.
“I just want to look at you,” he murmurs. “Sometimes, I think I only imagined you in my head.”
“You didn’t.” I lean into him. “I’m here.”
He unbuttons his shirt, slowly removing it and dropping it onto the floor before he moves on to his trousers. His briefs are still on when he mounts me, his hands coming to rest on my head. He falls onto me, kissing me with more passion than he’s ever shown.
He drags his hands up my body, pulling my silk nightgown with them. I arch into him, and Thorsen groans, finding his way inside me. My body is his church. His place of worship. And he’s feeling especially devout tonight. We come together with a manic craving that will never be sated. I need to hear it from him too. I need to know I’m not the only one who is homesick for this place when we aren’t together. Beyond all reason, I am in love with him. Can he ever find a way to love my broken parts too?
He kisses me everywhere. Tastes my skin and inhales me. He fucks me one second and makes love to me the next. And somewhere between darkness and dawn, we both find our release, and he collapses into me, struggling to hold his own body weight from the sheer exhaustion of his day. When he rolls over, he brings me with him, so we are side by side, facing each other. Our legs and hands and breath still tangled.
I curl my fingers over his beating heart. The words are silent, but he reads them in my eyes.
I feel you.
Thorsen reaches for my hand, bringing the palm to his lips so he can kiss it. Then he places his palm over my own heart. A promise in the darkness, with words too vulnerable to say. And for a few blissful minutes, as we drift off to sleep like that, it feels like everything is finally going to be okay.
“Thorsen.”
Something nudges my arm, and I groan.
“Your phone,” Ella murmurs. “Calder keeps calling you. He’s called three times already.”
I open my eyes and meet hers. She’s halfway propped up but still trapped in my arms as she points at the nightstand.
A few seconds of silence pass before the phone starts ringing again, and when I pick it up, a sickening feeling swirls in my gut.
“Calder?”
“You need to get to the palace,” he says. “Now.”