I looked down at the arms I was eager to have around me, shaking as they neared me, and as if I didn’t have enough reason to cry already, I began to cry harder.
Thrax, the legend in every scholar's mind and the nightmare of every child...Thrax, the Soulless Man, was shaking to touch me.
How unluckily lucky I was.
When he finally touched me, gripping my shoulders firmly, he swallowed. One of his hands came up to wipe at my tears, only for them to fall harder, until he hauled me against himself and locked his arms around me, pressing my face to his chest.
His hold was fierce and possessive and immediate, everything I had ever wanted.
“Fuck, Sanora,” he whispered against my hair, his lips trailing desperate kisses into my crown. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
My body shook with tears, throat clogged and mind wondering why he was sorry. I knew why I was crying, but why was I cryingsohard?
His grip crushed me close, one hand fisted into my hair, the other holding me against the thundering beat of his chest. He kept repeating how sorry he was, drowning me in his apologies until I let myselfsink into him, until the terror bled out and left only relief, until I was done letting out the wave of emotions of seeing him again when I thought I might never do for the next month I’d be spending locked up in this room.
But I was in his arms, and I was safe.
Slowly, he pulled back from the hug. My fingers fisted against his back, as though letting go meant losing him again. His hand rose, brushing the tears from my cheeks with a tenderness that broke me further, then cupped my face as he leaned in, his words soft.
“Let’s go home.”
My chest thudded so hard it almost hurt.Home. The word rang inside me, scattering through my ribs, heavy and sweet.
“Home?” I breathed, uncertain.
He nodded, black irises roaming all over my face “Yes. Home,Nher.Let’s go home.”
My inside me gave way.Home with him. Of course, we’d already been living together, sharing the same bed, and breathing in each other, but it had never struck me—and I didn’t want to get ahead of myself—that we could actually label that house he bought ahome. But it was ours. I could call it home.
And yes, I wanted to go home with him.
“I can’t...I can’t walk. Can you...lift me?” I said, getting my speech back slowly.
Nodding, he placed a soft kiss on my forehead, his lips lingering for a while before he scooped me up in his arms, standing on his feet. One arm was under my knees, the other one around my back as he walked out of the room, crossing Winifred’s body to the stairs.
“How did you find me?” I whispered, head resting against his chest.
I missed him so much.
“A girl knocked on my door and told me he saw you around here in his car.”
“Who—”
Amelia.
That fucking manipulator. Was she trying to make Winifred take the fall of everything because he stole me away from her? She was trying to wiggle out of this?
“The one who’d come to return your phone the other day.” He looked at me. “Are you okay?”
Filing her thoughts for later, I nodded, closing my eyes as I sank into him. “You’re here. Yes.”
We got downstairs, and he placed another kiss on my forehead, holding me tight as he crossed the ruin he made in the living room and walked outside the door.
By the time we got home, it was past noon, as I was informed. He got to the door with me still in his arms, and I unlocked it with a turn of the knob.
He walked inside, letting the door shut behind us as he walked us straight to the stairs.
I placed a hand on his chest to stop him when a cluster of crumpled paper and empty sheet littered the kitchen entrance, both on the counter and everywhere on the floor. The sight cut through my haze, pulling me upright with sudden clarity.
