Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Onyx: Falling in love is not a choice. To stay in love is.
Her brown eyes widened as she lay there in disbelief. The fear in her expression quickly shifted to something else entirely.
Lust.
I released her wrists and then hesitantly started moving away with my hands out in front of me in a gesture of surrender. As soon as I was sitting on the balls of my boots, she tried to punch me in the face, but I caught it mid-strike, which only further pissed her off.
I couldn’t blame her, making me hard as fuck.
If anything, I was proud of the courage she held in such a life-and-death situation.
Hennessy was a lot stronger than I ever gave her credit for, and that was saying something, considering I thought she was already pretty brave for all the shit she did out in these woods in the first place.
Alone and with no one to protect her.
Not letting up, she began fighting me again, but I was at my wits’ end with her to begin with.
“Calm down,” I ordered, blocking her attacks.
“Calm down?” She went to hit me again. “You want me to calm down?”
Again and again, she tried to assault me, and my patience snapped like a lead pipe made of string.
“That’s it,” I growled close to her mouth. “I’m over this shit.” I stood, dragging her with me.
“Onyx, don’t you—”
I threw her over my shoulder, carrying her farther into the woods, to a more secluded spot where no one would find us. She kicked the whole way, putting up one hell of a fight, but I didn’t expect anything less from her at this point.
She wasn’t the only one who knew these woods like the back of her hand. I too spent a lot of time out there alone, trying to get away from all the bullshit that was supposed to be my home. It was the only place I could ever feel truly free, just another thing we had in common.
Despite being raised in two completely different environments, we understood each other in ways no one else could fathom. On paper, we didn’t make any sense. In reality, it was the only thing that did, and I loved that about us. I didn’t have to explain who I was or what I believed in…
When I believed in her.
I smacked her ass a few times, trying to get her to steady. Unaware of how much time it took to get to my location, I slammed her ass down by a fire near the river. No one came out this far, too afraid of what lurked in the water, particularly at night.
I was never scared of death. I was terrified of living. If my fate was to die at the hands of a bear or a wolf or a gator, then so be it. I’d die a warrior. Exactly like my pirate ancestors.
Nobody ever understood the importance of lineage as she did, and she read mine as if she had written it herself with only a glance at me. I never had that happen before. Calling me out on it was one of her favorite things to do.
She whipped around as soon as her ass hit the log. “No!” She tried to break free from me as I hovered above her.
“Stop, or you’re going to hurt yourself.”
She glared at me. “Not any more than you already have.”
Inhaling a deep breath, I desperately tried to keep my cool although I was on the brink of insanity when it came to her.
Right on cue, she didn’t hesitate. “What the hell is going on?”
“The less you know, the better.”
“What kind of bullshit response is that?”
“The only one I’m giving you.”
We were at a standoff for a moment.
“Where are we?”
“Where I want you to be.”
“Stop fucking doing that!”
“Shhhh…” I ordered. “The woods echo.”
Slowly moving off her, I sat beside her instead, contemplating what I would say to her next.
Her long dark hair flowed all around her face and down the sides of her body. Her complexion was pale, and her pouty lips were dry from dehydration. She was still wearing the Academy uniform, and something about her submissiveness in that second made me want to claim every last inch of her.
In true Hennessy rebellion, she didn’t stop. “Why would you scare me?”
“Because you love it so much.”
“That’s not—”
“No need to bullshit me.”
“Oh, that’s right! I forgot you know everything about me.”
“You think this is easy for me, Hennessy?”
“You were never going to show me your face, were you?”
“I was, on my time, not yours, but you made it completely fucking impossible for me not to reveal myself. What the hell—”
“How about you think for a minute what I’m going through, you selfish son of a bitch?”
I growled as my hands fisted at my sides. “All I’ve done is think about you, and that’s why we’re in this bullshit to begin with.”
“Are you just going to sit there and be all you?” She gestured her hand toward me, working it up and down.
“You’re not going to ask any more questions—”
“The hell I’m not!”
“If you interrupt me one more fucking time, Hennessy, I’ll gag you. Do you understand me? Nod your pretty little head if you do.”
I could see it in her eyes. She wanted to defy me. However, she reluctantly nodded instead.
“Good girl.”
Her jaw clenched.
“Trust me, Hennessy. I know this is really hard for you, but you have two choices here. You can either listen to every order I give you or…” I paused, letting my words sink in. “You can be silenced.”
She opened her mouth but quickly remembered my warning.
“Good girl.”
She scowled at me, mouthing, “Fuck you.”
I sighed, unwillingly giving in to her. “Ask.”
She didn’t hesitate. “Now I’m just expected to trust you?”
I didn’t waver in my reaction. “I’m not who you think I am.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “I don’t understand.”
“And you’re not going to.”
“Try me. Please. I need to know you’re not going to hurt me.”
“For now, you’re safe with me.”
“For now?”
“You’re going to have to trust me.”
“Don’t you dare tell me that… not after all this.”
“You fell for the man you think I am.”
“That’s not true.”
“You can’t be this naive.”
She winced, not trying to hide it from me. “So what? I’m just a job to you?” Her eyes widened in disbelief.
It was blatantly obvious that her mind was spinning out of control. The realization of my statement caused her more turmoil than it did ease.
She peered around the woods, avoiding my eyes. Her emotions were getting the best of her.
“I just want to go home,” she whispered so low.
She wasn’t talking about her uncle’s. “You’re not safe there right now. You need to be here with me.”
She frowned, tears pooling in her eyes as she bowed her head, defeated. “With you?”
“Yes. With me.”
She peered up at me through her long, dark lashes as a few tears streamed down the sides of her face, but she instantly wiped them away, not wanting me to see her looking so weak.
Again, fear was a hell of a drug, and I understood that too. She was probably crying from the adrenaline coursing through her veins.
Still, she didn’t understand I could read her like the back of my hand without even trying.
“You’re safe here for the time being,” I answered her question the best I could.
“With a man like you? A Brotherhood member? You’re precious Blood Oath Brotherhood?”
“Something like that.”
She gave me a questioning stare. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Are you in danger too?”
“I’m always in fucking danger. It comes with the territory of who I am. I thought you understood that.”
It hurt her to hear the truth out of my mouth. I could tell she felt bad for me, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t faze me.
It did.
Much more than I cared to admit.
I couldn’t remember the last time someone did.
“Why were you ordered to watch me?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me. Do you have cameras in my house?”
Dealing with the tantrum she was about to throw, I spoke another truth, “Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to.”
Her face dropped. “The food… it was you?”
“It made you happy.”
Her eyes widened, realizing what this meant. “So you’ve watched me shower?”
Being the asshole I was, I acknowledged…
“Among other things.”