“I hate feeling so helpless,” he admitted. “I can throw money at most things and fix them. This isn’t one of them. I don’t know what recourse we have. You were right, we have very little evidence to stand on. It hurts me deeply to know that what little comfort you had was gone.”
She wiped as another tear rolled down his cheek. Her brave warrior was crying for her. It left her speechless.
He wiped at his cheek and cleared his throat. “Stefano is an attorney. I’d like to, if I could, share your story with him. He can tell me what recourse we have. Also, on a personal note, he should probably know the woman he’s sleeping with.”
She nodded. “Please,” she begged. “Don’t broadcast it to the world. I don’t want the looks of pity. I’ll just feel sorry for myself.”
“I would never broadcast it. I would only speak with Stefano. Lachlan, if you’d permit it. He’s a corporate attorney but he may have some ideas, too.”
Her head pounding, she nodded and asked him, “Can I stay here? My head is pounding and I don’t feel like being alone.”
“Stay,” he said, stroking his thumb over her cheekbone. “Let me take care of you tonight. I think you could use it.”
She nodded, absolutely wrung out. “Okay.”
Talan scooped her off the couch and carried her into the bedroom. She vaguely thought of protesting, but in the end, she just went with it. She was too exhausted to argue.
When he set her on the side of the bed and then began undressing her, however, she stiffened.
“Were you going to sleep in your work clothes, love?” he patiently asked.
“I suppose not,” she conceded while she stripped off her work shirt.
By the time she was undressed, he had stripped down to his boxers. Together, they climbed into bed and he pulled her into his arms. She honestly tried to relax.
That laugh kept rolling through her mind. The knowledge that Colette had likely killed a part of her family left her feeling physically ill. The fact that she would likely get no justice left her feeling broken.
Talan said, “This isn’t going to work, love. Flip over on your stomach.”
“Huh?”
In that overly patient “let me say it slowly in case you weren’t listening” tone, he commanded, “Flip over and lay on your stomach.“
Her face scrunched in annoyance, she rolled over and asked, “Better?”
“Not quite yet, smart-ass,” he retorted, sitting up.
Lilly opened her mouth to respond but could only groan when his thumbs began to work at the knots in her shoulders. “You don’t have to do that,” she eventually managed to mumble.
“Let me take care of you,” he repeated.
“Mmkay,” she agreed, her tension slowly melting.
She hadn’t had anyone try to take care of her in a long time—not since her mother. She let out a shuddering sigh as the tears came once again. Silently, as he continued to rub, she cried. Eventually he must have realized, because he gathered her back into his arms. He stroked a hand through her curls and crooned softly to her. For some reason, his tenderness only made it worse.
With a start, she realized that perhaps she wasn’t done grieving after all. That was a hell of a thing to realize ten years after the fact, wasn’t it? That Talan was the first person to truly let her grieve the loss of her parents.
Aunt Magda was of the “suck it up” school of comfort. Marissa had ended up crying harder than Lilly when she’d finally worked up the courage to tell her. There hadn’t been anyone else, really. Perhaps, she realized, the books hadn’t been enough.
Chapter Sixteen
Talan groaned when the alarm clock went off. It felt like he had just gone to sleep only moments ago. He sat up, looked around for a moment, slightly disoriented, and then he remembered. A heaviness settled in his chest. Today was going to be incredibly unpleasant.
He grabbed his phone and quickly texted Lilly. “How are you holding up?”
He continued to lie in bed until finally he was forced out of it by his scheduled room service delivery. He drew in a sip of blood as he settled on the couch and considered adding a kitchen to his suite. He’d specifically vetoed the idea as a waste of space back when he’d remodeled.
It would be nice to have food and drink readily available for Lilly when she was there. He sighed. His poor Lilly. Last night had been hard. He was a person who fixed things. There wasn’t an easy fix for this problem though.