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“Will you get in that bath with me?” she asked after a moment, rubbing her cheek against my back in a way that unspooled some of the knots in my body. The fear didn’t loosen its grip, though. I wasn’t sure it ever would.
“Only if you let me hold you,” I replied a beat too late, finally releasing the petals into the water and wincing at how bruised they were.
“Damien,” she murmured, turning me to face her. “My shield.”
Fuck. My nostrils flared, emotion hitting so severely that I couldn’t begin to parse out its name. My throat hurt, swollen and raw.
“I know you’re shaken—I am, too—but I—” She sighed, her chest heaving, then snared my gaze. “Tonight doesn’t have to be perfect, just because everything went wrong with the reception. That’s not your fault, and there’s nothing to apologise for, nothing to make up to me. I don’t care if there are rose petals or fancy bath bombs—”
“Therearefancy bath bombs,” I confirmed in a rasp.
“You taught me that I don’t have to be perfect,” she said, silencing me. “And it—it gave me freedom to be me, to really bemyself. So now I’m telling you. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect, Damien. This, you and me, is everything I need.”
“So fuck the rose petals is what you’re saying?” I asked dryly. I loved her so much it was a physical pain.
She kissed me, a single brush of comfort to my bottom lip. “I’m saying get in the bath, Damien.”
“Yes, my queen,” I demurred. A weight dropped from my shoulders when I undressed, settled in the hot water, and Vasilisa fit herself to my front.
She still wore my mum’s necklace. My breathing tangled.
“Here,” she said, pressing a sponge into my hand and squeezing a liberal amount of almond-scented soap onto it. “Wash every trace of that shithole off my body.”
The curse coaxed a soft laugh from me, and I did as she commanded, feeling better with every part of her I soaped and washed clean.
But those eyes haunted me—dead and accusatory.
I’d nearly lost Vasilisa, too. I couldn’t let that happen again.
CHAPTER 16
VASILISA
“Damien?” I murmured, staring at the marble kitchen island covered in platters of food, bowls of fruit, and fresh bread. It smelled incredible, but the sheer scale of it was worrying. Damien loved to cook, and always insisted on making food for me, but there was a difference between making dinner and… this. “You weren’t there when I woke up.”
“I woke early,” he replied, whisking batter in a mixing bowl and offering a smile that in no way touched his eyes. “You had the twins with you, and I—I put more cameras throughout the flat,” he added quietly, glancing up to gauge my reaction. “Only I can watch them,” he said hurriedly. “And you, if you want. No one else has access to these feeds, I made sure of it.”
I didn’t like how jumpy he was, or how quickly he spoke. I buried my irritation at him setting up cameras without telling me, but if he’d done it this morning and I’d only just woken up, I could forgive that. Beside me, Serenity stuck her nose in the air, sniffing at the food, but I gave her a warning tap with my finger.
“It’s fine,” I told him, nudging Sparrow away from where she’d joined her sister. Not entirely trusting the twins, I rounded the kitchen island. Damien’s shoulders sagged when I wound my arms around his waist, squeezing tight. “At least we’ll know we’re safe.”
Damien set the mixing bowl on the counter and turned, pulling me against his chest, laying kisses in my hair. “What do you want to do today?”
I drew back a fraction, frowning up at him. “It’s Sunday. Aren’t we having dinner with everyone else?”
He glanced away, dragging his teeth over his bottom lip. “Not this week,” he replied, and his reaction made sense when he added, “The explosion took out the kitchen, so everyone’s in a hotel for now. Family dinner is cancelled.”
I wilted, resting my head over his chest again and inhaling his woody scent. “I’d been looking forward to seeing everyone. I know that’s probably stupid after getting kidnapped and threatened but—it’s nice to be around people who act like family should. Unlike mine.”
Damien threaded his fingers through my hair, his whole body tensing until he was strung as tightly as a bow. No doubt at the reminder of what my family had done. “I can phone Wyn, see if she and Rae would come over—”
“No, it’s fine,” I said with a head shake. “They’ve just had their home blown up, I don’t want to trouble them.”
“They’ll take any excuse to escape the hotel. Being cooped up with Stefan is anyone’s worst nightmare.”
I laughed, but my chest ached. There was no humour in Damien’s voice, only worry. I squeezed him tighter, tipping my head up to kiss his jaw.
“We’re gonna be okay, Damien. Artur can never hurt me again, Dad’s dead, and Finch will be gone soon.” I caught his lips in a kiss, featherlight and reassuring. “It’s almost over. Okay?”
