It really was the craziest thing because she barely knew him, and yet at the same time, it felt like she knew him somewhere deep down in her soul. They were kindred spirits for sure, even if their lives had been very different.
Guess she had one thing to thank her brother for. Without his insane plans, she never would have met Steel. There was no way to undo their meeting, it would always be another dark spot in her mind, another time she was used and abused for someone else’s purposes, but they could build something new on top of the old.
“It will be a punishment for every bit of pain you’ll make yourself feel if you test me, little ladybug,” Steel warned, but there was no real heat to his tone. He sounded worried about her, and that had her eyes misting over again.
Crying had never been something she did. She’d always known, understood even when she was too small to be able to express it in words, that tears excited her brother, made him hurt her more, and gave him exactly what he wanted. So, she’d learned to shut them down. They didn't fix anything, they only held the power to make things worse.
But now she felt like she was finally free. Steel’s offer to let her go even though she knew it wasn't what he wanted, was all she’d needed to hear to know that staying with him was the right thing to do.
Not only did she want to help them find her brother and make him pay for everything he’d done, but she wanted to stay with Steel, get to know him better, and explore the crazy attraction that burned brightly between them.
For the first time in her life, she had something good, and she wanted to grab hold of it and refuse to let go.
“Are you crying?” Steel asked, a thread of panic in his tone. “Do I need to call Voodoo?”
The sincerity of his words made fresh tears run freely down her cheeks, but she smiled through them. No one had ever put her first before, and yet she knew that was exactly what Steel had done the day before. He and his team could have focused on Ridge, used their skills to track him from the car, and find him before he got on that helicopter.
But they hadn't done that.
They’d stayed with her and saved her life.
“Not those kinds of tears,” she assured him. It was so weird because Rose had always viewed tears as a weakness, but it didn't make her feel weak to cry in front of Steel. Instead, itmade her feel free because she knew he wasn't going to use those tears against her. “I'm not in pain?—”
“Liar.”
Huffing a chuckle, Rose gave a nod of acknowledgment. “Okay, so Iamin pain, but that’s not why I'm crying.”
“Then why the tears, little ladybug?” Steel’s large hand swept across her cheek, catching her falling tears, then smoothed a lock of hair behind her ear.
“Because you make me feel safe enough that I don’t have to worry every second about being strong, about having it all together,” she answered honestly. There had been enough lies and darkness between them already, going forward, she wanted only honesty and light. For sure she was going to want a bite of pain in the bedroom, her body still craved what it knew, but outside of that, she wanted to experience softness, gentleness, all the things she’d never had but always longed for. Steel might seem to be the most unlikely man to give her that, but she wasn't an ordinary woman, and the way he protected her with his strength meant more to her than sweet words, or candlelight dinners, or deep talks about their feelings.
“You are the strongest woman I've ever met,” Steel told her. The hand that had caressed her cheek now circled the back of her neck, squeezing just hard enough to give her a twinge of pain. “But sometimes strength is realizing when you need to step back and let someone help hold you up.”
What was she just thinking about how Steel might not be the master of sweet words? Guess she’d better rethink that, because he seemed to know exactly what to say to make her heart swell in her chest.
“No one’s ever given me that before,” she admitted. No one had ever given her anything before. Her brother had just used her, and she hadn't been brave enough to let anyone else in. Steelhad barreled into her life, giving her no choice but to let him in, and she found she couldn’t regret it.
“And I didn't think anyone would ever give me what you have,” Steel told her, a rare moment of vulnerability in his dark eyes.
Their broken pieces were like magnets drawing them together, and the more time she spent in Steel’s arms, the more it felt like they could rebuild their lives, rebuild themselves, come out stronger than anything her brother had done to either one of them.
Her stomach chose that moment to grumble loudly, breaking the moment, and reminding her she had been too nauseous to eat the day before.
“Sounds like it’s time for breakfast, little ladybug,” Steel said, sliding out of her as he lifted her up and off him and setting her on the bed beside him.
“I’d love a bath first,” she said. She was hungry, but she couldn’t seem to wash off the feel of her brother’s clammy hands on her. That brought up too many memories of the past, and she wanted to be free of those shackles so she could fly free and find her future.
“If you have a bath, I’ll only have to mark you all over again.”
Rolling her eyes at him, she laughed. “I see we have a bit of a thing going on here. You know it’s not actually good for me to walk around covered in our … expressions of pleasure … all the time. It could wind up giving me infections.”
“Need my mark on you,” he said as his fingers trailed along the healing bite mark on her breast.
Ridge had used it against Steel, calling him an animal for biting her, but she’d enjoyed the sting of his teeth breaking her skin, and she didn't hate Steel’s idea of tattooing the mark onto her skin as a permanent reminder that she was his.
“If I got the tattoo, what would you get to mark you as mine?” she asked. If she was doing this, it was a two-way thing. He had to wear her mark as well.
Eyes lighting up, he leaned in and pressed a kiss to the bite mark before placing a hand over his heart. “I’m getting a rose with a ladybug tattooed right here,” he told her like it was already set in stone as far as he was concerned.
