Chapter Twelve
Darhg
I stand in the cabin's warm golden light, my red eyes blazing with barely controlled lust as I stare at Rona. She meets my hungry gaze without flinching, her back against the kitchen counter, looking like prey that refuses to run.
And fuck me, that makes me want her even more.
"You should go to bed," I repeat, but my voice comes out rough and my tone husky. My hands clench at my sides as I fight the urge to cross the small space between us and claim her perky, mocking mouth.
She tilts her chin up, those pale-blue eyes sparkling with defiance and something darker. Something that makes my cock throb against my jeans.
"What if I don't want to?" she challenges, her voice soft but steady. "What if I want to stay right here with you?"
My jaw clenches so hard I'm surprised my teeth don't crack. "Rona, don't play with fire."
The smile that spreads across her lips is pure wickedness, all heat and promise enough to bring me to my knees.
"Maybe it's time I got that spanking you promised me."
The words hit me straight in the cock. My vision darkens around the edges as every primitive instinct I possess roars to life. Despite every warning bell in my head, despite every rational thought screaming at me to walk away, I find myself walking toward her.
She doesn't move. Doesn't run. She just watches me approach with those big blue eyes, her breathing quickening as I close the distance between us. The scent of her arousal hits me like a drug, clouding my thoughts and making my hands shake with the effort of maintaining control.
I stop just close enough to feel the heat radiating from her body, close enough to see the rapid pulse beating at her throat.
The lamplight catches in her strawberry-blond hair, turning it to spun gold, and I have to grip the counter on either side of her to keep from tangling my fingers in those silky strands.
I want her so badly it hurts. I want to fuck her, to bury my cock in her tight, wet pussy and hear her scream my name as she comes all over my cock. I want it so much, it’s the reddest flag of all red flags.
So I grit my teeth and stay like that, hovering above her like an idiot. Or a monster. Or a monstrous idiot.
She holds my gaze, her blue eyes so big and wide, I could drown inside them.
"What are you so afraid of?" she asks quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. "Why do you fight this so hard when we both want it?"
The question cracks something open inside my chest. Something I've kept buried for so long I'd almost forgotten it was there. But looking down at her now, seeing the reflection of my own desire in her eyes, I know she doesn’t understand. And that I owe her an explanation.
"Because I've seen what happens when an ogre claims someone," I say, the words torn from somewhere deep inside me. "I've seen how it destroys everything good."
She reaches up, her small hand coming to rest on my chest, right over my racing heart. The touch burns through my shirt like a brand.
"Tell me," she says simply.
And God help me, I do.
"My father," I begin, then stop, swallowing hard against the memories that threaten to choke me. "He loved my mother. Obsessively. Possessively. And that love made him jealous of everything and everyone."
Rona's hand stays steady on my chest, her touch grounding me as the words spill out.
"At first, it was little things. He didn't like her having friends. Didn't want her going out without him. Said he just wanted to protect her, keep her safe." I laugh, but there's no humor in it. "Sound familiar?"
Her eyes widen slightly, but she doesn't pull away.
"It got worse as I got older and he drank more and more. He became convinced that every man who looked at her wanted to take her away from him. The mailman, the grocery clerk, even her own brother. He made our world smaller and smaller until she was barely allowed out of the house."
The memory of my mother's face, once so bright and full of laughter, slowly dimming as the walls of my father's obsession closed in around her, makes my chest tight with old grief.
"When I was fourteen," I continue, my voice barely above a growl, "I came home from school to find him attacking her. She'd gone to the grocery store without telling him, and he'd worked himself into a rage waiting for her to come back."
Rona's breath catches, tears brimming in her eyes. She covers her mouth with her hands like she’s trying not to cry.
“Oh, Darhg.” Her beautiful face is full of compassion, and it breaks my heart all over again. “I’m so sorry.”
"I tried to stop him, but I was just a kid and he was…
" I continue, remembering the helpless fury of being overpowered by my own father.
"A full-grown ogre. Strong. Tall. Full of rage.
He threw me across the room like I weighed nothing.
He broke a few of my ribs, but at least it focused his anger away from my mother. "
My hand unconsciously goes to my ribs, where old fractures had healed but somehow the ghost of the pain remains. The memory of that day, of the fear and the helplessness, remain as fresh as ever in my mind.
"Once he saw what he did, he stopped. I remember the way he looked at me, like he didn’t even recognize his own son.
He left to drink himself into a stupor and my mother took me and left the next morning while he was still passed out drunk.
We drove to another state, changed our names, and started over.
I never saw him again, though he tried to find us for years.
I became the man of the house and I enrolled in the army the summer after high school.
I wanted to provide a good life for her, just like she provided a good life for me. "
Rona's tears are flowing freely now, her hand still pressed against my chest like she's trying to hold my broken pieces together.
“Where is your mother now?”
"She died of cancer when I was twenty-one," I say quietly, my throat closing at the mention of her terrible illness.
"I was deployed overseas when she passed.
I couldn't get home in time to say goodbye. I inherited this cabin from my grandmother five years ago, but I could never bring myself to sell it, even though I received many offers. In the end, Saltford Bay is the only true home I’ve ever known.
The only part of my family that remains. "
Rona nods, but she still doesn’t speak. Silence stretches between us until Rona breaks the spell.
"Are you scared of becoming like him?" she asks softly, her voice thick with unshed tears. “Is that why you keep pushing me away?”
I nod, not trusting myself to speak.
"Of repeating his mistakes?"
"It's my deepest fear," I admit, the words scraping my throat raw. "That I'll love someone so much I'll destroy them."
She shakes her head slowly, a sad smile crossing her lips. "You could never hurt anyone like that, Darhg. Don't you see? You're nothing like him."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because I know who you are," she says simply.
"You're the boy who saves baby birds. Who puts everyone else's safety above his own.
Who walked away from me rather than risk crossing a line.
" Her hand slides up to cup my face, her thumb brushing across my cheek. "You're a protector, not a destroyer."
Something breaks open in my chest at her words, years of self-doubt and fear cracking like ice thawing in the spring. She sees me. Really sees me. Not the monster I'm afraid of becoming, but the man I've tried so hard to be.
Slowly, deliberately, she opens her legs, bracketing my hips with her thighs.
"I trust you," she whispers, and the simple declaration nearly brings me to my knees.
My hands close on her thighs above her jeans, feeling the warm, firm flesh beneath the denim. Her scent clouds my mind, sweet and intoxicating and utterly perfect. Every nerve in my body is screaming at me to take what she's offering, to claim her the way every instinct demands.
"You're in danger," I warn her, my voice rough with want. "I'm too hungry for you, too obsessed already. If I take you now—"
"I've never been safer than when I'm with you," she interrupts, her voice fierce with conviction.
And that's when I break completely.
I take her mouth in a desperate kiss, my control finally snapping like an overstretched wire. Her soft lips fit perfectly between my tusks, just like they did before, and when she opens for me with a soft sigh, I claim her mouth like a drowning man claims air.
She tastes like apple crisp and wine, making my head spin and my cock ache with need. Her tongue meets mine stroke for stroke, her small hands fisting in my shirt as she pulls me closer.
Breaking the kiss, I trail kisses down her throat, tasting the salt of her skin, breathing in her scent like it's the only thing keeping me alive.
My hand slides under her flannel shirt, finding the soft swell of her breast, and when she moans my name, the sound goes straight to my cock and my balls tighten to the point of pain.
This want, this need, is unlike anything I've ever felt. It's consuming, overwhelming, threatening to burn me alive from the inside out. I want to devour her, possess her, make her mine in every way possible.
And God help me, I’m not going to stop now.