Chapter 56 Rest, Lorian
REST, LORIAN
Eve wakes during the Fifth Chime and tries to disengage herself from us. “I need the toilet.”
We allow her up, but instead of staying in bed, I get up and start the steam cycle in the bathing alcove. When it’s ready with the scent of crushed starbloom petals, designed to relax muscles and quiet nerves, I find her in front of the mirror, surveying all the bruises on her little body.
“We needed physical reassurance,” I say, while gently picking her up and carrying her into the bathing alcove.
“I know,” she says quietly. “Words weren’t enough.”
I set her down in the bath and pick up a warm cloth.
I run it gently over her thighs, cleaning away the mess we made.
I’m thorough but unhurried; my fingers brushing over swollen flesh with a care that makes her eyes open and find mine.
I hold her gaze while I wash her body from top to bottom.
And I think she’s surprised by my gentleness, but I don’t say anything.
I just let my caresses speak for themselves.
They say over and over again, ‘I adore you, Eve. I will do anything for you. I am sorry I am so difficult. That we are so difficult to love.’
When I finish, I dry her with a soft towel and then take out a thin, long-sleeved tunic of deep silver from my wardrobe.
I gently guide it over her head and down her arms, my fingers lingering at her wrists, brushing the delicate bones there.
She’s so small and fragile. I forget because she’s so strong in herself.
I bring my hands back up her body and smooth her brown hair back from her face.
“We couldn’t let you go,” I tell her quietly as not to wake up Rafe. “I don’t think we will ever be able to let you go, even after the seven years.”
“If we survive,” she says.
“Yes, if…” I pick her up and take her back to bed, positioning her between myself and Rafe again.
His hand immediately goes between her legs as he kisses her shoulder in recognition that she’s back, and I settle in on the other side of her, my hand on her neck.
Both of us are on the same side of our corresponding tattoos on her shoulders.
It’s not a coincidence. Rafe knew which side of a woman we prefer to sleep on.
And all I can think about is how right it is to have Eve between us.
For now, I don’t allow myself to worry about the delicate balance we will all have to keep so that none of us go insane with this double-life we will all have to lead.
Treating her as an owned slave publicly and an equal lover privately.
None of us can lose our sanity, or our triumvirate will break, and Eve will be taken from us.
Or an even worse possibility, one that I have only just thought of, that we might accidentally kill her in this emotional madness.