Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
The pinching tension in Thomas’s neck only worsened as Wyatt’s presence drew nearer to the small sitting room. Thomas exhaled and closed his eyes. It didn’t bode well that the last time he’d been in this room, he’d been with his fathers when they’d dropped him off at the Ashford estate.
That memory alone made him lightheaded, as if the ghost of himself from only two months prior were sat across from him—pale, miserable and looking and feeling dead to all the world.
The door opened and Lennon stepped inside first. “Your grace, Lord Wyatt Grant of Oberdeen House.”
Thomas stood as Wyatt sauntered into the room, beaming and with his arms outstretched. His reddish-brown hair was neatly trimmed and fashionable, and his clothing was smart and well tailored, as always.
“Anton! You stunning creature—how wonderful to see you again.” He walked right up to Thomas to embrace him, but Thomas held his palms up and leaned away.
“Wyatt—please don’t. For fuck’s sake.”
“Ah right, yes, yes, of course I shouldn’t behave this way anymore considering our respective circumstances.
” He wiggled his eyebrows as he took a step back, as if it were all a clever joke that the two of them shared.
He lowered his voice. “But you know what you do to me, Anton. I’ve never quite excelled at resisting your magnetic allure. ”
“Do try,” Thomas said, brushing his thighs as he sat down in the tufted chair behind him. He gestured toward the small couch. “Sit.”
Wyatt winked, clearly amused. “Yes, my lord. As you wish.” He eased back, sat down and folded his leg, grinning flirtatiously all the while.
The man was utterly exhausting—always had been.
When Thomas was younger and hadn’t known himself, he’d tentatively yielded to Wyatt’s overbearing charms. How could being so blatantly adored and desired be a bad thing?
Surely Thomas had just needed to give it time, then his feelings would grow to match Wyatt’s and they’d develop a passionate and meaningful relationship.
Except that had not happened. The more Thomas gave, the more Wyatt coveted, and the whole situation became unbearable. Thomas had felt like a toy that a spoiled, whiny child was wholly affixed upon and yet could never be contented with. He always wanted the toy to do more, give more, say more.
“Thank you for accepting my request to visit today,” Wyatt said, pouring himself a cup of tea.
He didn’t think to fill Thomas’s cup. “The viscountess is lovely, but I’ll be candid with you in that getting away from the estate alone is never an unwelcome opportunity.
” He paused briefly with his teacup lifted, studying Thomas openly.
“Seems you and I might be in similar circumstances?”
“What does that mean, exactly?” Thomas asked, not bothering to fill his own cup. He did not intend to be in Wyatt’s presence for much longer.
Wyatt smirked. “Well, I can’t perceive Lord Ashford’s scent upon you.
I noticed this at the party as well. He’s made no attempt to formally mark you as his own, so perhaps yours is an arrangement of convenience as much as mine?
What a waste—the man is in possession of a rare and precious stone and doesn’t bother to properly claim it.
I suppose that does leave room and opportunity for the two of us, don’t you think? ”
Thomas exhaled slowly with his palms set neatly in his lap. The audacity of this creature was limitless. “I have a question for you,” he said, ignoring the grossly presumptuous remark. “Which is why I accepted your request today.”
“Oh? Please, ask away.”
“Last spring, when I told you that Dawn and I were going to the coast to be alone together, did you pass that information along to anyone else? Particularly, anyone from my family or estate?”
“Last spring?” Wyatt blinked, flustered. “God knows what I did last week, let alone last spring. I have no idea—”
“Think back on it,” Thomas urged him. “It is of the utmost importance.”
Taking the moment seriously, Wyatt set his teacup down and sat back against the couch with his arms folded. “Hm, last spring, you and Dawn… May I just say that I did not find her to be suitable for you at all—”
“Right, of course not.”
“It’s just that she was so dreadfully mousey and quiet with all her reeeaaading. Ugh. You deserved someone with a little more spark and excitement. A little zing!”
“Someone like you?”
Wyatt smiled. “Well, yes, naturally. Anyway, I think I do recall your father coming to campus—the one with the absurdly blue eyes. He said… he said they were looking for you? That they were worried and some such and wanted to find you. So, I might have mentioned that you’d gone to the coast with your little mouse and that they could probably find you there.
Does that satisfy your queries? You know that I do love to satisfy you, Anton. ”
The limit of Thomas’s patience snapped like a twig. “You wretched, selfish and thoughtless creature.”
“E-excuse me?”
“What business was it of yours to disclose where I’d gone and with whom?”
Wyatt sat straighter, regaining his bearings. “As I said, your father indicated that he was worried about you! Why wouldn’t I tell him if I knew—”
“Because the consequences of that choice are irreparable, Wyatt! Dawn and I were planning to run away that weekend. We were secretly going to elope to London and build a life together there. But you pointed them after me and everything fell apart!”
“How was I to know any of that?” Wyatt exclaimed, his eyes wide as he leaned forward. “You didn’t say it was a secret! I assumed I was helping and that there was cause to be worried about you. Why ever did the two of you hash such a preposterous and dramatic scheme anyway?”
“It was neither preposterous nor dramatic,” Thomas said sternly. “We were in love and my father had refused to give his consent for us to wed and bond. We wanted charge over our own destinies, but instead… instead…” Thomas lost his breath. He shook his head with his palm plastered to his face.
Instead, everything fell to ruin.
“What happened after your younger father caught up with you?” Wyatt asked. “I assumed he did. You didn’t return to university, and you disappeared for months on end—and Dawn as well.”
Only Thomas’s elder father had shown up to the cottage where he’d been apprehended. Thomas hadn’t seen him, but remembered the pressure of his aura in one of the cars waiting at the end of the drive. This information about his younger father’s involvement was news to him.
Thomas swallowed and it went down thick.
He’d grown rehearsed in conveying his experience now, having told both Cameron and Dawn.
With each telling, a small space had opened up between his present self and the devastation of the event.
It still hurt to speak the words, but the pain was less raw now.
“My fathers had me imprisoned beneath our castle for three months,” he said plainly, then took a hefty breath. “They chased Dawn’s family out of Eden and essentially tortured me until I was compliant to their will.” It all flooded back to him, but not as intensely.
He reminded himself that he was sitting in Cameron’s home and he was safe.
In Ashford House, he was treated with respect, kindness and, unfathomably, love.
Yes, it had been his fathers’ intention to capture, weaken and profit from him, but in his estimation and by some unforeseen miracle, he’d landed softly.
Thomas understood that he could have been handed over to any number of vile, arrogant and awful purebreds within Eden, and the suffering would have continued. But he’d been lucky. Instead of being tormented further, he was unexpectedly healing. Day by day. Little by little.
“Imprisoned for three months?” Wyatt balked, his voice rising. “What the devil? It sounds positively criminal!”
“You told them where to find me,” Thomas reiterated. “It wasn’t your business to tell.”
Wyatt’s spine stiffened. “Why should I be blamed for this?”
“I’m not blaming you, per se. I just need you to know that when you disclosed that information, it changed the trajectory of both mine and Dawn’s lives.”
Wyatt frowned with his eyebrow raised. “It sure as hell sounds as if you blame me! I thought I was helping you, Anton.”
“You were not.”
“How was I to know? And whatever the consequences were, you look very well now.” Wyatt waved a flippant hand in Thomas’s general direction, indicating his body. “You’re as striking and handsomely put together as ever, so whatever they did had little impact in the long run. You’re perfectly fine!”
The words were like a sharp knife to Thomas’s throat, and his breathing hitched. With a flash of heat, his eyes alighted. “How dare you?”
Wyatt drew back dramatically. “Wh-what has come over you—”
“You will not sit here and belittle my suffering simply because you can’t outwardly see the remnants of it! You have no idea what I—how much I’ve—” Thomas shook his head, bewildered with rage, shame and an entire catalog of feelings that he didn’t quite understand.
One thing he knew for certain, he was not about to justify his trauma to this vampire.
“Leave, Wyatt. I never want to see you again.”
“Oh, Anton, please—”
“Now. Go away.” Thomas stood and rubbed a palm down his face, desperately trying to get ahold of himself. “Mira?”
His maidservant came in at once and gave a hasty bow. “Yes, your grace?”
“Wyatt is done here. Please see him out.”
“Yes, of course.” She stepped back toward the door and held it, gesturing for Wyatt to follow her.
Ruffled, Wyatt stood and adjusted his suit jacket. “Really, Anton, I feel that you are being most unreasonable. Unforgiving! It was an innocent mistake on my part. I had no idea.”
“Stop calling me Anton. I hate hearing it and it’s not my name. It’s like you’re speaking to the ghost of a dead man. Your dismissive manner is what offends me the most. Leave.”