Chapter 28 Ophelia
Ophelia
As I sit and talk to the two women, my mind constantly whirls, wondering about the men and if they’re okay.
Camile is telling a story about how she once snuck into the cafeteria when she was drunk and tried to turn on the stoves to cook herself some food.
She giggles. “The dean was so crazy pissed at me, I thought I was going home to Mexico.”
Vani snorts. “Honestly, you’re the last person I’d expect to do something like that. That’s more like my trick.”
“Nah, you’re all settled down now,” Camile teases. “Sensible Vani, with her men watching over her.”
Vani glances over to where Zane is still lurking. “It does feel like they can’t keep their eyes off me.”
“You’re not the only one.” Camile jerks her chin toward Roman. “Mr. Viking over there hasn’t stopped staring at Ophelia.”
I press my lips together and my cheeks warm with pleasure.
Camile lets out a long, wistful sigh and props her chin on her hand.
“What’s up?” Vani asks.
“Oh, nothing, really.” Camile shrugs. “I know I was against you getting involved with those guys, but I have to admit I have moments where I wish I had a whole gang of gorgeous men looking at me the way your men look at you.”
Vani nudges her elbow into Camile’s ribs. “Your time will come. You’re smart and beautiful. The right guy—or guys—will come along.”
Camile rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. In the meantime, I’m always the bridesmaid and never the bride.”
Vani’s cell is on the table beside her, and it lights up as it starts to buzz. Camile glances at it, and her eyes widen. “Wow, who is the silver fox?”
“Eeew, Camile, that’s my dad. Don’t get any ideas!” Vani laughs and answers the phone. “Hey, Dad. Yes, I’m good. Just in the cafeteria with a couple of friends. Oh?”
She listens for a minute and then her face lights up. “Really? When? Oh, my God, that’s awesome.”
Zane, who has been standing back this entire time, giving Vani some girl time, has moved closer and is now hovering.
“Yes, great, see you then.”
Vani hangs up and claps her hands. “That was my dad. He’s coming to Verona Falls because he’s on his way to a meet with an MC chapter that isn’t far from here. He’ll be here in two days.”
Zane’s face is a picture, and I bite back a smile.
Camile glances at Vani’s phone again. “Maybe I’ll meet him while he’s visiting?”
“I doubt it,” Vani says dismissively, and Camile shrugs. Then they’re back on an even keel again, talking about a girl who allegedly is having an affair with a member of the staff.
As much as Vani and Camile are doing their best to distract me, my thoughts are only in one place—with Cain and Malachi.
I keep questioning whether I’d feel it if they were dead, and I search deep inside myself for any changes.
It would break me, but it would also break Roman, and I almost fear that more.
Roman, all Nordic, six feet something of him suddenly tenses, and his hand dives into his jeans pocket to retrieve his cell. He strides away as he swipes the screen and places the phone to his ear.
My stomach lurches, and I don’t even bother to excuse myself from Camile and Vani. They’re now talking about some celebrity I don’t know, so it’s not as though I could really join in the topic of conversation anyway.
I do my best to read Roman’s body language, but he’s bolt upright, his shoulders tense and his back to me.
It might not even be the others on the phone, but instinct tells me it is.
If they’re calling, it means they’re alive, right?
But then it might only be one of them informing us of the other’s death.
My stomach knots, and I think I’m going to be sick. My eyes well with tears.
“Roman?” I say when I reach him. “What’s happened?”
He turns to me, and immediately I know it’s good news. My body doesn’t seem to quite get the message, though, as my legs turn to jelly and my knees give way beneath me. Roman is with me in an instant, scooping me into him and supporting me. I wrap my arms around his neck and cry with relief.
He holds me tight. “Shh, it’s okay. They’re safe. Cain’s father has been dealt with.”
He strokes my hair and kisses my forehead. I sniffle and nod against his shirt, inhaling the familiar scent of him. I know that by dealt with, Roman means Cain has had to kill his own father, and guilt hits me hard.
“They want to talk to you,” he says, when I’ve regained my composure a little.
I’m worried I’m going to burst into tears again when I hear either of their voices, but I place the cool metal of the cell phone to my ear.
“Ophelia?” a voice says.
It’s Cain.
“Oh, my God, I’m so happy you’re okay,” I cry. “I’m so sorry you had to… you know, deal with your father. I feel so terrible.”
“It wasn’t me, in the end, but I’ll fill you in more on what happened when we get back. We’ll be bringing someone else with us, someone I’d like you to meet.”
“Who?”
“My brother, Samuel.”
Happiness tweaks my cheeks. “That’s good.
” I’m glad he still has family. It can’t have been easy for him, taking his father out that way, but ultimately, I hope it will be healing once he’s worked through the trauma and the guilt.
I hope he’ll be able to move on now from what happened in the past and forgive himself, even though none of this was his fault.
“Is Malachi okay?” I ask.
“Yeah, he’s right here, staring daggers at me for not handing over the phone.”
I give a strange little laughing-hiccupping-sob. “You can hand it over to him.”
There’s a rustle, and then Mal’s voice comes down the line. “Hi, baby. We’re safe and on our way back to you now.”
“Hurry. I’ve missed you. I’ve been so worried.”
“I know, baby-girl, but we’re coming back now, okay, and we’re not going to be apart again.”
I smile. “I’m going to surgically attach myself to each of you.”
He chuckles at that. “I think that’s going to make things a little difficult to get around, but I appreciate the premise.”
I say goodbye and hand the phone back to Roman. He scoops me up against him again and kisses me, hard, right in front of half the student body. I melt in his arms, wishing there was a way I could become a part of these men. I’d crawl beneath their skin and live there, if I could.
Someone wolf whistles, and Roman and I smile against each other’s lips. He squeezes me tightly around the waist and then releases me.
Though I’m overjoyed at the others being safe, and this whole thing being over, it’s impossible to shake my sadness completely.
I’ve lost Daisy, watched her die right beside me, and I’ve taken a man’s life.
Even if he deserved everything he got, it’s still hard not to be troubled by that event.
The Prophet had haunted me for such a long time, and ruled so much of my life with an iron grip, that I’m still working hard to free myself from him completely.
The fear that he’ll somehow find a way to punish me for what I did keeps trying to push its way into my head, and it’s a fear that won’t listen to rationality.
Roman leaves my side, first kissing me one last time, to go and tell everyone that the threat has been neutralized. Camile and Vani both hug me, and, across the room, I spot Mackenzie with her child on her hip. She sends me a smile of understanding.
It occurs to me that I have a new version of family now, and that family isn’t always a static thing. Its form ebbs and flows with the passing of time, and it doesn’t have to be the people we share blood with.
Verona Falls has become a home, and the people within it my family.
Roman returns to me and takes my hand. Together, we leave the cafeteria and make our way through the building to step outside.
For once, we don’t have to worry about armed guards around us.
We are safe. I breathe deeply in the fresh air, feeling the weight of everything we’ve been through lifting from my shoulders.
Though I know I should be happy now, I can’t seem to shift the melancholy that settled around my heart at Daisy’s death.
I doubt Cain and Malachi will return here in a celebratory mood.
Even though they were successful, they still had to take lives and, for Cain, it was a very personal life to take.
No matter how in the wrong his father was, or the things he did, he was still Cain’s parent, and that’s a huge loss.
In fact, in some ways, it can be even harder to lose a parent who wasn’t really there for us.
The complicated emotions and the longing for what could have been.
We all have so much baggage, and yet we make it work between us supporting each another when any one of us in particular needs it.
Roman and I return to the water tower, and I try to busy myself around the place, putting on fresh coffee and checking for what the others can eat when they get back—I’m assuming they’ll be hungry.
“Ophelia?”
Roman’s voice has me turning away from the refrigerator.
He beckons to me with the crook of two fingers. “Stop pacing around and come here.”
I shut the fridge door and go over to where he’s standing. His injuries are looking so much better now—he’s young and strong and has healed fast—though I’m sure he’ll be in pain from his jaw injury for weeks or even months to come.
I go to him, looking up into his handsome face. “What is it?” I ask.
“I can think of a better way to pass the time.”
He takes my chin between his fingers and tilts my face up to his and lightly kisses my mouth.
His kisses trail across my jaw and then down my neck, and my body responds to him.
My nipples tighten and my pussy flutters.
I give a little breathy whimper as one hand knots in the back of my hair and the other slides down the front of my pants.
“Roman,” I breathe.
“Shh. Just let me make you feel good.”
His hand slips beneath the elastic of my panties, and his fingers push between my legs. He parts my pussy lips, finding me already wet, and penetrates me with his finger.
I clutch his shoulders. “Oh, fuck.”
“I love hearing swear words coming out your mouth,” he says with a grin.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I repeat.
Saying them isn’t only a way of expressing myself, it’s also claiming my freedom.
The Prophet’s voice no longer intrudes. I hate that I still think of him, even while I have one of my men’s fingers inside me, but I hope one day I’ll discover I haven’t, and I won’t be able to remember the last time I did.
“That’s right, princess,” he growls. “Use those dirty words. Claim them now. Tell me how you’re a slut for me.”
“I’m a slut for you, Roman.”
“Your tight little pussy is mine.”
His words make me even wetter. “My pussy is yours.”
Roman uses the pressure of the ball of his thumb against my clit to give me something to grind against. We’re both fully clothed, standing here, making out like a couple of teenagers.
He adds a second finger, pumping them in and out of me while I cling to him. My thighs tremble, and I’m sure I’d collapse if he wasn’t supporting me. He curls his fingers inside me, finding exactly the right spot.
“Good girl, you can come for me. I want to feel you gush around my fingers.”
“Oh, fuck, Rome…”
I’m lost in the sensations of my body, my toes curling, my mind spinning.
He builds my climax higher and higher, all the while kissing and nipping and licking the sensitive skin of my throat and murmuring filthy words to me, until suddenly it breaks.
Pleasure washes over me, and my pussy clamps down around his fingers.
I jerk and shudder, my eyes rolling back, stars exploding in my vision.
Gradually, I come down, and he slips his hand from my panties and raises his fingers to his mouth and sucks them off, one after another.
I’ve barely caught my breath when the grumble of a truck engine comes from outside. “They’re back!” I cry.
Roman grins smugly. “Told you I could find a better way to pass the time.”