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Except that she did understand Willem’s impossible situation. He’d been traumatized as a child in a way she would never fully comprehend, not in a dozen lifetimes. And he couldn’t seem to move beyond his deeply embedded shame, not even for the sake of this boy or a hundred that would follow if the killer wasn’t stopped.
So where did she fit into this equation, other than feeding Willem and relieving him of his blood-starvation?
She thought about Vojalie and Davido, two of the most famous people in the entire Nine Realms world, and that they’d dropped everything to come and help, wanting more for Willem.
Davido had said that Willem needed to release what had happened to him if Willem was to have a chance at a normal life.
Her faeness began humming once more as she watched him. Again, she let the new realm vibration flow as she set her mind on helping Willem to release the past.
Slowly she moved in his direction, still uncertain what needed to happen. When she drew close, she gave him a shove against his shoulder and it wasn’t a pleasant shove at all because her faeness added a vibration.
He turned on her, his eyes flaring. “What the hell was that?”
“Because I’m mad right now. At you.”
“What right do you have to be mad?” He got in her face, showing that temper of his, the real Willem.
His physical size should have cowed her. Instead, she had a mission right now and that mission didn’t involve coddling the man. “You need to get over yourself, Willem. You carry this guilt of yours around like a badge of honor. And aren’t you special for hurting like this, for feeling destroyed inside because a monster once tortured you.”
His eyes widened in horror at her words, but his rage returned just as quickly. He shouted, “And what the fuck do you know about any of it. You lived your suburban American life, all safe and full of schoolgirl dreams.”
“Oh, you mean like when my father, in a drunken stupor, would beat the shit out of me and my brother? You mean that delightful childhood? Well, let me tell you something, I may not be as old as you, or as experienced, but I know one thing: I wouldn’t let what happened to me interfere with saving this boy and that’s exactly what you’re doing.”
His hands balled into fists. “You’re twisting this damn situation around.”
“We need to bond to fix this thing and you know it. I’m willing because I know who you are, because I trust all that you are.” She slapped a hand against his chest, then did the same to herself. “The partial bond has told me everything, Willem, the depth of your shame and the height of your nobility and worth whether you see it or not. All that this night has done for me is to prove that what I read in the articles and blogs about you and the information that my gossipy troll friend gathered at the RIU, is all true.
“And I’ll go a step further. I fell in love with you, my stupid man, the moment you entered my classroom and nothing, nothing, that I’ve learned or experienced since has changed that. If anything, making love with you, being with you, enjoying the partial bond with you has strengthened what I feel, how much I believe in you.”
She’d never been so bold in her life and maybe this was her lesson, that she would leave everything on the table right now even if it meant complete and utter rejection.
Willem was worth fighting for and though the boy’s fate had become the current topic, she knew it was Willem’s sense of worth that had to be altered right now.
* * * * * * * * *
Willem stared at Charlotte. He felt the same way about her, but his thoughts had frozen in place. He wanted to bond with her, but he couldn’t say the words. He loved her, he knew that now, but the words wouldn’t rise in his throat. He was as paralyzed as he had been on that monster’s table, unable to move, to help himself, to escape.
Didn’t Charlotte see how much he was broken, that he could never be fixed? He wanted to believe her, that all he had to do was bond with her and everything would be okay, but she just didn’t seem to understand how badly wrecked he really was.
“Take a step toward me, Willem, just one. Do you love me?”
&
nbsp; “I hardly know you.”
“That’s not an answer. Besides, I think you know me inside and out.”
She was right. The blood rose bond had shown her character to him, everything that she was, and he’d been cruel to accuse her of having lived a simple life in Tennessee, when he’d known about the struggles of her childhood.
She was a woman of great courage, who loved his world, who had been able to look through one of the worst case files ever without flinching, and she’d just confessed that she loved him.
“Do you love me, Willem? I want an answer.”
She wasn’t even afraid of him, or put off by his temper, or his size, or even that he was broken.
Drawing close, she put a hand on his chest once more, but gentler this time. “What do you feel for me, right now? Say the words out loud, all of them, even the ugly ones.”
For a long moment, he couldn’t speak, but he needed to tell her something. “I feel affection for you.” His voice sounded so small.
