Finding Wisp by Noelle Marie

Author:Noelle Marie [Marie, Noelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-12-10T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“Wisp?”

I stared, wondering if I had somehow drifted off while resting against the wall.

Because the figure standing at the bottom of the stairs couldn’t possibly be real.

It was Derek, dressed in a suit of all things – the navy pinstripe a foreign sight against his tan skin. Other than that, though, he was almost exactly as I remembered him: his dark hair a beautiful mess atop his head and his green eyes so bright that they were like beacons in the dark of the basement.

But that was just it: Derek was in the basement.

And the only logical explanation I could come up with was that my mind was playing tricks on me.

After all, it wouldn’t have been the first time I had dreamed of Derek finding me – rescuing me. Almost every day I would imagine how he would hold me, how his hands would feel running through my hair instead of Felix’s. How he would say he’d made a terrible mistake and that everything he’d said to me before he’d kicked me out of his cabin – “I don’t love you.” – had been a lie.

“Wisp,” he repeated, his voice thick with a kind of emotion I didn’t have a hope of identifying. It should have been strange to hear that name again after three weeks of being called Sloane, but somehow it wasn’t.

And then, before he had even finished saying it that second time, he was moving – rushing to me. He dropped to his knees next to the dirty mattress I sat on, and I flinched when he lifted his hands to touch me, my body conditioned to expect Felix’s long, cold fingers.

But the fingers that tenderly cupped my cheek were warm. The thumbs that brushed over the dark circles beneath my eyes were calloused. They were impossibly gentle as they held my face like it was something precious. Like I was something precious.

They felt real.

And all at once, I realized it was real. Derek was kneeling in front of me.

My heart leapt into action at the overwhelming realization, throwing itself against my ribs with abandon. I could hear it pounding in my ears as a sudden rush of endorphins or adrenaline – something – threatened to overwhelm me.

“Oh, honey… what have they done to you?” he asked, a quiver present in his voice that I’d never associated with Derek before. He examined the tape stuck to my mouth, touching the frayed ends with careful fingers, before his eyes were attracted to the chain that connected me to the wall. Although the hands on my face remained endlessly gentle, the green orbs flashed black.

He released me to examine the manacles, carefully fingering the cuffs that encircled my wrists. I flinched when they brushed over a bruise.

“I’m going to get these off of you, okay?” he said, voice pitched low like he was talking to a scared animal. “I just need you to hold as still as you can for me.”

At my shaky nod, he took hold of the center of the chain connecting the manacles together and pulled.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.