Blackthorne by Lynn Cooper

Author:Lynn Cooper [Cooper, Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Targheda Press
Published: 2017-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Blackthorne

PAISLEY’S SOFT, SLENDER ARMS slide around my neck. I’m blubbering like a fucking baby. Damn her! Why the hell couldn’t she leave well enough alone? I haven’t cried since the night my mother died, and I don’t plan on ever doing it again. Shedding tears is useless. Actions are all that count.

She lifts her pretty head off my shoulder and says, “I’m so sorry about your mother. I know how bad it hurts to lose a parent or two.”

I grimace. “I know you do, Little Lamb. I never said so, but I’m sorry for all you lost to those bastards—Mendle and his lackeys. I killed them, but I should have made them suffer first.”

She reaches for the corner of the comforter and uses it to wipe away the tracks of tears from my face. “That’s what you’ve been doing all these years, isn’t it? Killing bad men who remind you of your father. Men who do terrible, despicable things to women and children. The night you rescued me, I asked you why you killed. Now, I finally understand why.”

I roll onto my back and pull her on top of me. Even though she’s much smaller than I am and light as a feather, I need to feel her full weight against me. To anchor me in this moment. To pull me out the past.

Brushing a strand of hair off her cheek, I say, “You understanding doesn’t change a thing, Paisley. I’m not like other men. I—”

She cuts me off, and I can see the steely stubbornness in her eyes. She’s a survivor, too. She thinks we’re the same, but we’re most definitely not.

“I’m glad. I don’t want you to be like other men. I love you just as you are.”

Oh, shit! She just said the L word.

“You don’t know what you’re saying. What you feel for me is nothing more than a bad case of hero-worship with a big dose of gratitude and likely a whole heap of sympathy after what I just told you.”

I see anger flash in her big, brown eyes. Lord, but she has a temper.

“You’re wrong, Blackthorne. I do love you. I died inside when you left me at Bennington’s. I know you were doing what was best for me, but I missed you so much. I’ve spent the last five years dreaming about you, waiting for the day I would see you again. Did you even think about me at all?”

I take her cute, freckled face between my hands. “Yes, Little Lamb. I thought about how happy you must have been at school, learning and soaking up all the knowledge that had been denied to me. I thought about how very grateful I was that you were somewhere safe. I thought about how proud I was of your academic accomplishments. I want those to continue. That’s why you’re going to college. I was planning on talking with you about it tomorrow, but now is as good a time as any.”

“I am most certainly not going to college, and I won’t let you send me away again.

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