“Mount Pleasant Care Facility,” he answers just as I see the others come up behind us. Ignoring them, and the scowl on Aeron’s beautiful face, I place my hand over his, both of us resting them atop Blue’s nose.
“I’m sorry that they hurt your mom, Jude.”
“Apologies don’t do shit, Dove,” Aeron sneers, and I flinch at the venom in his tone. Poor Blue shakes her head and whickers, clearly sensing my distress, our hands falling away from her.
“Will you come with us to visit her, Nightingale?” Jude asks, his voice full of sorrow as he ignores Aeron’s comment, lacing our fingers together.
“If you want me to, I’d like that,” I tell him, following his lead and dismissing the angry Tailor behind us. Jude beams, one of his completely carefree smiles that sends my stomach fluttering and which I’m slowly becoming addicted to.
“For fuck’s sake! Want to show her all our safe houses next? Or maybe share our bank details?” Aeron fumes and I drop Jude’s hand, turning to face his brother and then taking a step until I’m standing before him, not cowering before his anger.
He stands taller, trying to intimidate me with his size and the power of his body. It doesn’t work. Men have been using their bodies against me for years, I’ve learned to be unafraid.
“Why are you so scared of me, Aeron?” I ask softly, my eyes bouncing between his, and his glare narrows, his body practically vibrating with tension.
“I’m not scared of you, Dove.” He scoffs, his upper lip curling. It should make him unattractive, but it doesn’t. “Dead Soldiers are lying, conniving, scheming cunts, and you are a Dead fucking Soldier.”
As if on instinct, I reach my hand out, slowly like I just did with Blue, and cup his smooth cheek. His eyes widen a fraction, his chest heaving so that it brushes against mine.
“I’m not here to hurt you, Aeron.”
Lie.
My gut twists for a moment, my chest tightening with the untruth that spills from my lips.
“How can I trust that? Our families have been at war for so long, Dove. We’re fucking enemies,” he confesses, his voice quiet, and the sounds around us fade as he brings his forehead down to mine, my eyes closing with the contact. “And why is it so fucking hard to remember that when you touch me?”
“I don’t know.”
Truth.
My breath sighs out of me, my whole body relaxing at his nearness. Slowly, his lips meet mine in a kiss that brings tears to my eyes with its gentleness. Out of all of them, Aeron is the one that undoes me so completely. He makes me wish things were different. That we could just be together like this always.
But, there is a bigger picture here, so much more at stake than my broken heart, so reluctantly, I pull away.
“Let’s show you the rest of the stables, and you can meet Samson,” Aeron says, lacing our fingers together and taking a step back, my hand tingling as it falls from his cheek.
“Samson?”
“He’s my stallion,” Aeron tells me, a boyish grin titling his lips upwards and making him fucking devastatingly handsome. “And has sired many winning Tailor horses.” Pride shines in his voice, his smile wide as he leads me over to another stable.
I jump when a kick rattles the half door, gasping when the head of a stunning, pitch-black horse pokes through.
“Steady, boy,” Aeron coos, letting go of my hand and reaching out to grasp the stallion’s head. “That’s no way to greet a lady.”
I snort at the same time that Samson does, and Aeron looks over at me with a raised brow.
“Perhaps you should practice what you preach, Devil Man,” I sass, taking slow steps closer to the magnificent beast and his horse.
“Hold your hand out, Dove. Let him sniff you,” Aeron commands, and there should be nothing sexual about his words, but somehow, my core still clenches anyway.Jesus.
With butterflies fluttering in my stomach, I reach up, letting Samson smell my hand just like I did with Blue, and when heseems to make no objection, I place it on his soft nose, marveling at the silky, black hair beneath my palm.
“He just needs a soft touch sometimes is all,” Aeron murmurs, and I can feel his stare on me, burning like the glare of the midday sun.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
