Chapter 6
DEVIL
It was both heaven and hell to have my mate asleep in my arms, her soft breaths a gift and a blessing.
I came so fucking close to losing her. How much longer could she have survived in that basement?
The fact that she wasn’t curled up in a ball in her room was a miracle.
The fact that she’d opened up, spoken the words dripping their poison and guilt into her—that was a miracle, too.
But to hold her as a friend, not her mate, had a constant pain in my chest. I needed to tell her, but not yet. Not while she still felt unsafe.
So I allowed myself another minute to hold her, angling my back to catch the wind, shielding her from the cold, and then I forced myself to stand, to carry her inside. She needed rest, not a selfish bastard keeping her outside all night just so he could hold onto her.
“Devil?” she mumbled, bleary as I closed the door behind us and aimed in the direction of the sanctuary. Thora might have my balls for stepping foot in there again, but so be it.
“Yeah, it’s me, angel. I’m taking you back to your room. We can’t stay in the garden all night, it’s freezing.”
“No.” She struggled, her eyes bright and wide, panic hitting me in the solar plexus. “No, I can’t go back there.”
I slowed my pace, then paused altogether. “Where did you sleep last night, Jessia?”
She sighed, relaxing in my arms, but I got the sense it was from exhaustion instead of ease. “On the sofa. But… can I stay with you? Just for tonight. I don’t know how to explain it, but I’m not as scared when I’m with you.” She shook her head. “It sounds stupid—”
“It doesn’t,” I interrupted, my voice thick. A dead fucking giveaway. I swallowed the knot in my throat and said, “It doesn’t sound stupid at all. Don’t apologise for whatever you need to feel safe.”
“So I can stay with you?” She didn’t meet my eyes, her voice full of vulnerability that cut right through me.
“Yeah, angel,” I said. “You can always stay with me.”
Even if the secret between us would eat at me all night.