Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Whistler.” His name sighed from my lips as the last bit of pain disappeared. The bond wasn’t weakening, he had just been getting closer.
He pinned me to the ground and loomed over me. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” He snarled the question in my face.
“I was doing what was best for the three of you. You can go back to your lives without me. You won’t be in danger.” I tried to shove him off me, but he refused to budge.
His hands tightened on my shoulders. “We’re fucking assassins, Rhapsody. We’re always in danger.”
I winced at his use of my given name. I loved their pet names for me, how they each had their own. “You have family and friends back at the palace.”
“But we don’t have you.” He all but roared his fury, and it echoed around us.
The fog surrounding us made him seem almost otherworldly, his red hair the only color I could see.
I closed my eyes against his fury and against my agony. “One day, you’d resent me for all you’d have to give up to be with me.”
He shook me, my back bumping against the ground. “The only fucking thing we’d resent you for is leaving us. You know, you go on and on about choices and freedom and then you go and rip ours away from us. We chose you, you maddening woman. And you threw it back in our faces. You didn’t even leave a note. You just disappeared with guards and assassins crawling all over the country searching for you.”
Tears reemerged and slid down my face. He was right. I was acting like only my choices mattered. My choice to continue singing. My choice to leave them. My choice to deny the bond. My choice to remain in this country.
And every single choice was wrong.
“I’m sorry.” My voice broke as I tried to swallow the tears and gather my wits.
Whist crushed his body into mine. “Oh, trust me. You will be. You will be very sorry when I’m finished with you.”
I quivered at the dark promise.
His eyes flashed, and I felt him harden against me, but he shook his head. “Not here. Sky and Saber are out searching for you in the other direction so they’ll meet us back at the house.”
He leapt to his feet and dragged me along with him. As angry as he was, his grip on me was gentle. Sniffling, I followed him through the foggy morning over to the horse.
It mystified me how I had missed the sound of him riding up.
Whist helped me onto the back of the animal and threw himself up behind me. He kept a stony silence as we rode back to the house. I didn’t try to break it, too mired in confused thoughts and feelings.
Mist soaked through my clothes, plastering it to my body. When I shuddered, Whist held me closer to share his warmth.
Finally, I spoke, unable to bear it anymore. “I really am sorry. I regretted it the moment I walked out the door, but I thought I was doing what was right.”
Whist clucked to the horse, urging her on faster. “I understand, gorgeous. I really do. But we had a deal. Three weeks. It hasn’t even been one. I’m not saying you have to accept us, but at least do us the courtesy of telling us and saying goodbye.”
My eyes slid closed in misery. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to leave if I told the three of you. I wouldn’t have the strength to let you go.”
“We don’t ever want you to let us go unless it’s something you want for yourself.” His words were so perfect, it was still difficult to believe he and the others were real.
They said everything I ever wanted and a lot I hadn’t realized I needed. They didn’t trap me, they offered me freedom. I kept waiting for the catch.
“I never expected to have this. I thought I’d always be alone and then the three of you crashed into my life and it changed everything I thought I knew and believed.”
He sighed, the force of it rattling his chest. “I know. Just take it day by day. We’ve accepted the bond. We want you. We chose you. It’s completely up to you what we do next. Just don’t run from us again.”
The fog was lifting, from the air and from my head. I could see deeper through the forest and I my future was less murky as well.
“I think I did accept it. It felt like it was killing me every step I took away from you three.”
“It felt like that for us too.” He clutched me even tighter, like he was afraid I would disappear from his arms.
“I’m sorry, Whistler.” I was. Devastatingly so.
A growl thundered in his chest. “I love it when you say my whole name. No one else does. Not even my mother.”
“I like your full name. But I don’t like it when you use mine. It makes me feel like I’m in trouble.”
He released the reins with one of his hands and slid it up my thigh, stopping before he reached where I wanted him most. “Oh, gorgeous. You have no idea the trouble coming for you. I meant what I said. You will be begging me for mercy when I’m done with you.”
My nipples hardened and sent a bolt straight to my core. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“And when I’m through with you, you’ll have Sky and Saber to answer to.”
I wasn’t looking forward to that quite as much. I didn’t want to see Sky’s laughing eyes dulled with pain and betrayal. I didn’t want to lose Saber’s sweetness to disappointment and sorrow.
“Are they mad at me too?” I asked in a small voice.
“Very. And hurt. And worried.” He returned his hand to the reins as we took a fork in the road.
I harrumphed. “You couldn’t lie to me? Or sugarcoat it?” I was super nervous about seeing Sky and Saber. Whist was shitty enough, but fighting with him didn’t pain me as much as it did the others. Whist brought out my combative side and a part of me enjoyed it. He understood the angry, bitter part of me because he was the same. The others didn’t have such darkness. Or if they did, I had yet to uncover it.
“Sorry. Not my style.” He released the reins again and his hand slid under my shirt to rest on the bare skin of my stomach.
I tucked my head into the crook of his neck, hoping his hand would travel higher. “I know.”
Whist took the hint, and he slid his hand up me ribs, grazing the undersides of my breasts. I squirmed on the back of the horse, craving friction, but it wasn’t enough.
It was nowhere near enough.
By the time the house came back into sight, the sun had completely appeared over the horizon and I trembled with desire and a slight hint of trepidation.
Whist had kept up teasing touches and steady innuendos for the remainder of the ride until I was ready to beg him to take me in the forest again like the last time. But I wanted to play the game the way he wanted. I wanted to see what he had in store for me. And the mist would have made things quite muddy and uncomfortable.
The other horse was still missing, so Sky and Saber weren’t there. “Should we go look for them?” I asked once Whist settled the horse in the small paddock.
Whist shook his head and stood aside for me to enter the house. “No. We have two hours until they return. We would ride five hours in each direction and then come back to report. Where were you headed anyway?”
I nibbled on my bottom lip before I answered. “There’s a house. One I lived in with my parents at the end. It’s in the middle of nowhere and no one knows about it.”
“Still had some secrets, eh?” He raised a brow.
“Not anymore.” I spun around to face him.
“Good.” The door slammed shut behind us. “Strip. Now.”