Chapter 20
Rafe
‘You want me to do what!?’
“It’s premature, sure, but practice starts now. Take us home.”
‘Now! Practice starts now? But I… I don’t know what to do.’
Her soft voice shrinks in my head, her doubt in herself making her feel small and inadequate—I hate it. She’s more than capable.
Bringing her chin up so she meets my gaze, I take all of her in.
The softness of her bone structure, the timidity she rarely shows wobbles her chin, the cute dimple that becomes more prominent when she lifts one side of her mouth in a small smile filled with meekness.
I see how much of her light that bastard husband has snuffed, and I want nothing more than to help her gather up the pieces and set them ablaze until she remembers how bright she shines.
Then I’ll watch the fucker choke on the ashes.
“You don’t have to know. You have to feel. Feel your way back to my cabin. Back to that evening.”
‘And miss all this?’ She jokes, swinging her arm out to the raging battle unfolding before us. I took us up an abandoned tower for safety. From what I remember, this tower wasn’t destroyed until the very last moment, which makes the perfect place of privacy for Lina to jump us.
“Trust me, what happens here isn’t something you want imprinted in your brain.”
I should know. It still gives me nightmares.
‘Will you tell me all about when we get back?’
I nod.
‘Promise?’
“Promise.”
She holds out her marked palm, and I place the Taka in the centre.
She watches in awe as her constellation absorbs the mineral, igniting her power as strings of magic unravel themselves and splinter out in search for mine, hungry for connection as my hand hovers nearby.
I give Lina one last steady look, curl my free arm around her shoulders, holding her tight, before intertwining my fingers with hers.
“Hold on to me.”
She lets out a gasp, her arm latching my waist, sensing the pull travellers feel before the shift.
“Feel the cabin, Lina. Or my office. Anything from back home in our time. You can do it!”
Time halts, its walls shuddering, our exit from my echo is rapid—the images of the rift flickering past at lightning speed—blurring by in streaks of light and memory.
Landing takes all the air out of my lungs, and even with my eyes squeezed shut, I sense my office by the scent of orange oil wood polish.
I keep still, nuzzled in the crook of her neck, holding her tight, neither of us wanting to dislocate from each other.
The thick blue curtain that separates my office from the wall I use to open the lands transport portals brushes against my bare back and arse.
With Lina in my arms, naked, everything seems heightened.
The way her small frame is cocooned by my bigger one yet seamlessly fits into my shell.
Her shallow breaths, like she can’t quite believe she did it.
The pulse in her neck that beats against the tip of my nose, the tender flesh of her spine beneath my rough fingertips.
The smell of her skin—fresh flowers and bergamot.
I don’t want to let her go.
‘You did it,’ I say into her mind, unable to help pressing a small kiss to the juncture of her shoulder. ‘I’m so proud of you.’
‘I really did it?’
‘You did.’
We pull back enough to take each other in. Our foreheads touch, our noses graze, and we both swallow. Her cherry lips are too tempting, and her ice-like eyes pull me in just a fraction as my thumb brushes against that dimple of hers.
So close to her mouth. A breath away from tasting her.
A breath away from potentially solidifying my future with her.
A breath away from crossing a line I’m not sure I’ll come back from.
I said I’d never take another choice away from her, so I don’t lean in.
She’s married. But she left him.
Still married.
Those two words coil tight in my gut.
Two words that completely disappear the moment Lina smashes her lips to mine. I fist her hair, tight, keeping her close to me, scared she’ll be ripped from me, terrified the second I let go, she’ll no longer be mine.
Her lips are soft, trembling, tasting of everything I didn’t know I was starving for. She tastes like fear, like fury… like fucking life.
Her nails dig into my shoulders, both of us kiss like the earth is about to split open and tear us apart. Kissing like the world’s ending.
In all my years I’ve never had a kiss like it.
She pulls back, startled when my tongue swiped inside her mouth, touching what’s left of her mutilated flesh at the back of her throat.
‘It’s ok.’ My heart’s a moment away from imploding.
She brings her fingertips to her closed mouth, eyes flickering with shame and embarrassment and it shatters all my hopes of us apart.
‘Lina, baby, look at me. It’s ok.’ I grip the sides of her face, keeping her near me a little longer, her energy screaming at her to run. She mentally retreats from me by the second.
‘Don’t run. Please. Stay with me.’
I fucked up. My stupid need to consume her brought everything back to her at blinding speed, kicking her on her ass. My kiss reminded this married woman what she’s actually here for. She’s here to take back what was stolen from her, not get caught up with the likes of me.
‘I should go.’
Three words. That’s all it took to make me realise I want this woman in more ways than one. Three words is all it took to know I want Lina longer than a short moment stolen in the dark.
Three words I won’t fight her on, despite my previous pleadings. Because the bottom line is she’s married, she has a goal to fulfil, and fucking around with me, naked, behind the curtain in my damn office wasn’t ever one of them.
“Are you even safe if you go back to him?”
Those words taste like acid. Of course she’s not safe with him, the bastard sliced off her tongue! What will he take next?
She nibbles her bottom lip; lips I sucked into my mouth moments ago.
Oh, to be able to travel back and re-live one of the best moments of my life…
‘I’d be a fool to step foot in that house again.’
“Then don’t. I’ll take you back to my cabin and we can get to work laying out a plan. He won’t find you.”
I’m not above begging.
‘What if he…’
Lina’s next words are interrupted by the jostle of the office door being opened from the outside. The murmurs of folk passing by filter through along with heavy steps.
“That appears to be your dilemma, not mine.”
That’s my voice. That’s me. But… the colour of the curtain we hide behind is blue; I changed it to red not so long ago.
We’re not back in our original timeline.
Both me and Lina stare at each, our eyes wide and our chests still. We clutch each other as I press her against the wall, attempting to make ourselves smaller. Luckily, the curtain is long and thick, and unless ‘past’ me swipes it across to open a portal, we should be left unseen.
Unless…
‘Jump us again, Lina.’
‘I got this jump wrong, what if it happens again?’
‘Then we keep trying,’ I shrug, feigning nonchalance, but inside my testicles are quaking.
“No, it’s both our problem!”
I smother Lina’s gasp with my hand. I didn’t think it’d be possible for her eyes to grow any bigger, but I was wrong, because right now they’re damn close to popping from her sockets.
‘That’s my husband.’
Despite her words filtering in my mind, I still hear the shake in her terrified voice.
And my balls that were quaking? Well, they’ve shot back up inside my body, because I remember this conversation.
‘Lina, jump us!’
She’s frozen, the sound of his voice locking her inside her head.
‘Lina!’
“And how is that?”
Oh, this is bad, so bad.
“I’ve been grooming my wife for this for years. If she’s having any relations with him…”
“The man lost his mate, again, I doubt he’s bedding your wife.” I hear the exasperation in his tone, because I was, I remember wanting to get rid of him, saying what I had to for him to fuck off.
Lina narrows her brows at me, her mind unable to compute the conversation between her husband and past me.
‘I didn’t know.’
“What if she talks?” Her husband says, pacing before my desk.
And here it comes…
“Then cut out her tongue before she can, that will keep you safe from execution.”
Lina’s mouth drops—and my whole world collapses within a blink.
‘Let me explain. Please.’
The pain in my chest hinders my lungs from taking another breath.
“If I cut out her tongue, how will she suck my cock.”
Fuck. Me. Shame seeps from my pores.
Lina brings the back of her hand up to her mouth, most likely to hold back the vomit surging up her throat. I know mine is.
She no longer holds her arms around me; but I do her.
“I’m sure she has other wet holes.”
‘I said that whilst reading the paper. I wasn’t interested in this conversation. I wasn’t. I didn’t mean it. I just wanted him to get the fuck out.’
“Though, knowing the type of man you are, they’re probably dried up.”
‘Lina, please look at me.’ She doesn’t.
She doesn’t even blink.
“My wife is very satisfied, thank you.”
“I’m happy for you, now get the fuck out of my office.”
“What about our deal?”
“I don’t have the goods, that should tell you there’s no deal.”
I cup Lina’s jaw, my thumb brushes over her bottom lip, her mouth slightly open. My vision blurs, the sting of tears threaten to spill, the hard, hot lump in my throat near searing.
Everything clicks. My damning words damned the beautiful woman I currently hold. The woman I’m slowly falling in love with.
‘I did this to you.’
I did this to her.
I fucking did this to her.
My reckless words did this to her.
How could I be so fucking careless with throwaway comments.
I did this to her.
Time bends around us. I feel it—the pressure. The world shrinks. The hum in my chest warns me something’s about to give.
All our surroundings blur as Lina, in raw survival, jumps us out of here, and into a place where nothing but our breaths are heard.