Panting, I flopped down, rolled us to our sides, and I stared at her in the darkness.
Fingertips found my face. “I am scared that I need you, Jud. That with you, for the first time in my life, I feel safe.”
“I’ll kill anyone who even thinks about hurting you, Salem. I will.”
It should have scared her.
But this girl? She snuggled into my side.
Grim.
And I guessed for the first time in my life, I was thankful I was him.
TWENTY-FOUR
SALEM
EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD
“Pupa.” He whispered her name like a secret. “My wife. My love. My life. You’re mine. Forever.”
Her stomach twisted as she looked up at her husband’s face.
She still couldn’t believe it.
She couldn’t make sense of how she’d ended up there. As if it’d been destined. Maybe planned.
Her fears had only amplified when she’d voiced reservations, and she’d been silenced. Carlo had attempted to assuage her concerns by telling her she had no need to worry at all. He’d promised to take care of her. Give her a life that she could only dream of. One that she had yet to discover.
But it’d felt rushed. As if she wasn’t given time to decide for herself. It’d felt wrong when he’d laughed when she’d asserted she still planned on starting college in the fall.
Mimi had been the only one to try to stop it. She’d warned it was a mistake. Salem had only truly begun to believe it when she’d said she wasn’t ready, when she’d begun to believe this wouldn’t be the life she’d want at all, and Carlo had shown and taken her to the chapel, anyway.
With a smirk, he’d told her it was cold feet, but Salem was more afraid that her heart didn’t warm when he was around.
That there was a piece of her that felt frozen.
“I love you,” he said.
“I love you,” she said back, unsure if it was a lie.
Because truthfully?
That love she’d once thought she’d felt?
It now came with a heavy dose of fear.
“You do whatever it requires. Am I clear?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Salem pressed her back to the wall as she listened to the conversation Carlo was having with Darius. She tried to press her eyes closed even tighter. Like maybe if she did, none of this would be real.
Her life wouldn’t be a nightmare.
A sad, cruel joke.
A moment later, Darius ducked out of the room. When he saw her cowering there, he sent her a worried scowl. But he didn’t say anything as he headed down the hall. The front door clicked shut behind him when he left.
Chills lifted on her arms when she felt the presence beside her. Carlo traced them with his fingertip. “What are you doing out here, Pupa?”
The tone of his voice was a soft accusation.
Salem gulped. “I was checking to see if you were ready for dinner.”
Hooking his thumb under her jaw, he studied her face. “That’s all?”
“That’s all,” she rushed.
He angled his head, pressed his mouth to hers, and muttered, “This mouth…this body…this mind? They’re all mine, Salem.” He angled back, rubbed the pad of his thumb on the middle of her forehead, stared at her when he said, “Be sure not to let it run places it shouldn’t. It’s dangerous out there.”
Salem forced a smile. “I’m happy right here.”
His smile was slow. Appraising.
Fear spiraled down Salem’s spine.
“Good, my love. Neither of us would want me to have to waste my precious time if I had to come and find you, now, would we?”
“Where would I go?”
He tapped her chin. “Good girl.”
Then he turned and strode down the hall toward the kitchen, calling out, “It smells delicious. I’m starving. Let’s eat.”
She waited until he turned left at the end of the hall then breathed out a pained breath.
She tried not to weep.
TWENTY-FIVE
SALEM
“What’s this?” My fingers played along the dress that was sitting on the end of Jud’s bed while I held the sheet to my chest with the other.
The palest light floated in through the square windows that ran high along the wall behind his bed. Dawn had barely broken the night, and the barest rays filtered through the darkness to give a token of the coming day.
I’d woken with Jud’s massive arms curled around my body, the man holding me tight, his steadying breaths filling my ears and my spirit and my lungs.
It’d taken my all to peel myself away from the sanctuary of his arms, but I needed to get home before Juni woke and Darius and Mimi realized I hadn’t come home all night.
Before my heart got any deeper.
Before I fell any farther.
But there I was, careening through the air, no ground below.
Diving into his dark abyss.
My fingers traced over the material. My heart stuttered. This man cared for me in a way no one else had done in my life.
I felt him shift from behind, and I looked back to watch the giant sit up in his bed. The covers slipped down around his waist. He roughed his fingers that worked magical things through his sleep-rumpled hair.