27. Sienna
TWENTY-SEVEN
SIENNA
After the walk back, we entered the castle to find that guard in the foyer. Instantly, I froze and reached for Tyran’s hand.
The man who scared me. It was unfair since I didn’t really know him. I told myself it was because I woke up with him hovering over me with his hand on my neck. It wasn’t his fault that Tyran instructed him to monitor my pulse.
Still, I couldn’t shake off the feeling of unease.
“Niall, why are you inside?” Tyran questioned, his voice cold.
He lifted his hand to show us his phone. “Left this behind in the commotion.”
His dark eyes flicked to me, and I fought a shudder. It was the kind of feeling I got in my nightmares, remembering those excruciating days and nights on the boat while being transported to the final destination where I’d be auctioned off.
“Okay,” Tyran acknowledged. “The rule of nobody inside the castle still stands.”
The man nodded, then walked past us. He sidestepped us, going around me, and his shoulder barely brushed against mine.
But I felt it.
My whole body tensed and I stood immobile, the door behind us shutting with a thud.
Tyran’s hand came to mine. I lowered my eyes to our joined hands, finding mine clutching his so tightly that his flesh turned white. He slowly peeled my fingers off but didn’t remove his touch.
“You okay?” I nodded. “Hungry?”
“No,” I croaked.
“Too bad, because I’m feeding you anyway. I brought you something from the States, and I want to see your face when you open it.”
He slipped my jacket from my shoulders, shrugged out of his own, and tossed them both onto the nearby table before taking my hand and leading me farther down the foyer toward the kitchen.
“Who cleans this place, anyway?” I asked, glancing around. It was always spotless, yet I’d never once seen anyone actually cleaning.
“Joseph’s wife.”
My head whipped around. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, it made sense since Joseph is the gatekeeper.”
“I guess.”
“You impressed them, you know,” he added casually as we entered the kitchen.
“Who?”
“Joseph and his wife.” Tyran pulled out a chair for me and I took a seat as he headed toward a large bag that sat on the counter.
“He mentioned you during one of my check-ins. He wanted to make sure you were free to walk the forest. The way he described you… It reminded me of you. That’s how I found you. ”
“Joseph should really learn to mind his own business,” I said, annoyed, although there was no bite to my words.
“I agree. I don’t like anyone’s eyes on you but mine.”
He turned around, leaned against the counter, and folded his arms across his chest. My eyes fell to those muscles flexing, and the world and everyone in it faded.
But those forearms.
For the past five years, I hadn’t felt a flicker of lust. Then this man showed up, and suddenly he was turning all my switches on.
“Sienna?”
I slowly dragged my eyes to his and noticed he was waiting for something. Shit, did he say something?
“Huh?”
His mouth twitched. “I asked if you’re ready for your surprise.”
“Yeah, sure.”
He picked up the bag from the counter and came over, dropping it on the table and taking a seat next to me.
The scent of baked pastries wafted from it.
I blinked. “You’re giving me a bag full of desserts?”
He smiled. “Check and see.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”
I held out my hand and picked up the bag, peering inside it curiously. I shot him a perplexed look.
“Donuts and Ben & Jerry’s green apple ice cream?”
I shrugged. “You’ll thank me later.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I doubt it. It’s more like I’ll spend my night in the bathroom with number three.”
“Number three?” I nodded. “What the fuck is number three?”
I blushed, silently cursing myself.
“Um, just forget it. It’s a joke between my siblings.” My siblings and I gave our bodily fluids numbers. Number three was a major diarrhea, and definitely too much information to share with a man. Never mind a hot man. “I didn’t know Ben & Jerry’s had green apple flavor?”
Which I would definitely not be eating.
Tyran smiled proudly. “I had them make it especially for you.”
My brows furrowed and I shot him a confused look. “Why?”
“Because you smell and taste like green apples.”
“No I don’t.”
I pulled a strand of my hair to my nose and sniffed it. It didn’t smell bad, but definitely not like green apples.
“Let me be the judge,” he said, his voice somewhat raspy. “Now eat.”
“I’m not eating ice cream, especially at this time of night.”
I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I also didn’t want to risk number three for the remainder of the night. Yeah, major turn-off and embarrassment.
“I’ll have the donuts though,” I added cheerfully. “I haven’t had one of those since…”
“Since you left the States.” He pulled out the box, opened it, and handed me one. “Eat.”
“Glazed donuts, huh?” I said, reaching for it. “You trying to get me fat so no other man wants me?”
“I’ll want you,” he said, exasperated. “I’m the only one that matters to you now.” I looked at him, incredulous. Did I hear him right or was I imagining things? “Eat, or I’ll be forced to hand-feed you, blondie.”
I chewed on my lip, the image not repelling at all.
Before I could cave in to temptation and let him feed me, I took the donut and bit into it. My eyes fluttered shut and I moaned. Dammit, I had forgotten how delicious these little round things were.
“Good?” Tyran asked, his voice smug.
I opened my eyes. “God, it’s delicious.”
“Krispy Kreme,” he said. “Only the best for my future wife.”
I swallowed and sighed, closing my eyes again. “This is wonderful. Do you know how long it’s been since I tasted one of these? It’s heaven.”
“It looks like heaven,” he said, something in his tone prompting me to open my eyes. There was such a dark, sinful expression in them that I almost choked on the donut.
“So,” I said after I swallowed. “Why are you trying to fatten me up?” He didn’t say anything, just kept looking at me. I went for another donut. “To have that heir of yours?”
“You’ll make a great mom.”
I stopped with the donut halfway to my mouth.
“Why?”
“Because you’re soft. You’ve always been soft. Stubborn, but soft and innocent. Protective even.”
“Probably courtesy of my own mom,” I said wistfully. No matter how hard the times were, my mom has always been soft and protective.
“She’s probably the kind of mother that my siblings and I’d have killed for.” His words had me pausing. It was the first time I’d heard him mention his mother. Not that we had many conversations about our families. In the beginning, I was pining and stalking. At the end, I was scheming my revenge.
Then, it all went to hell.
“She wasn’t a good mother?” I asked slowly.
He scoffed. “That’s putting it mildly.”
“I’m sorry.” I reached over and put my slightly glaze-sticky hand over his. “But your father… he was there for you. No?”
“Her cheating ways and pill-popping addiction, among other things, got him killed.” I froze, and he let out a dry chuckle at my expression. “I told you my world ruined everything and everyone, Sienna.”
“You did,” I rasped. “But why do you… want to marry me, then?”
He looked at me. “You’re not a cheater. It’s not in your DNA.”
“And yet, you’re jealous.”
He shrugged. “Maybe paranoid.”
“But what about the other thing?” I asked slowly. “Don’t I scare you with my… pill-popping?”
The truth was that I knew it was a problem. Maybe I wasn’t ready to admit it out loud, but deep down, I knew. It wasn’t normal to only find rest with pills and alcohol. My kidnapping and the things I’d witnessed during it weren’t normal either, though.
“No.”
“Maybe it should, Tyran.”
“If you’re trying to get out of my world, Sienna, it’s too late now.”
“It is,” I agreed. I lowered my eyes to my donut, my appetite gone.
“I just pray my world doesn’t finish you off. It’s ruined a lot of people.”
“It isn’t only your world that ruins people.
It’s everywhere.” I didn’t point out to him that he should want to finish me off.
After all, I’d cost him five years, but maybe we should be looking to the future rather than the past. “My biological father was cruel to my mom.” My eyes were still on the donut, but all I could see were images of my mom crying in the dark when she thought we were all asleep.
“She hid it, but I remember. The screaming matches. Furniture crashing. My mom’s bruises.
She was always so strong, but she’d break when she was alone, only to pick herself up and start again. ”
I looked up at him, my hand still on his, and I squeezed it. “It’s not only your world that ruins people.”
“So young yet so wise,” he murmured, his eyes locked on my lips.
“Thorns of youth and force of experience, I guess.” He leaned forward and licked the corner of my mouth. “W-what is that for?”
“You got some glaze there.” Then he licked it again, dragging his tongue from one corner over my bottom lip to the other corner. “It’s gone now.”
My heart was ricocheting in my chest, the thorns of our pasts temporarily forgotten, but underneath it all was also another feeling: the addiction that itched and clawed under my skin and anxiety of images that would come tonight if I didn’t satisfy that need.