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It was a double-edged sword speaking to him like this. Of course I didn’t want him to help Dahlia for his perverse purposes, but seeing my twin in her state cut into my soul. Ultimately, the most important thing was getting Dahlia to a place where she could be moved. And if I had to enlist Jesse for that, so be it.
“I’m doing all I can for your sister, sweet Bianca,” Jesse reassured me. “I have the best healers in the land working on her.”
The best healers in the land work for Atlas,I wanted to counter, but I managed to hold my tongue.
“Trust me,” he went on, sashaying closer until I backed up against the wall of the room. “No one wants her in marrying condition more than me. I’ve been fantasizing about our wedding night, the two of you servicing me in ways that you have surely never thought about.”
Again, his tongue jutted out to wet his lower lip, and I shivered at the sight.
“Mm,” he moaned, half-closing his eyes, reaching to rub his hands over my shoulders. “I should take you right now, just for a taste. See what I’m getting into.”
Recoiling, my eyes popped, and Dahlia groaned again in her sleep. Jesse sighed heavily and withdrew, but I continued to shake in the aftermath of his threat.
“The temptation is so great, I know that I have to wait,” he chuckled. “That’s how I know it’s going to be incredible with the both of you together. Taking you both at once. I won’t know which one is which. I suppose that’ll be half the fun, won’t it?”
His grin churned my stomach as he leaned in, depositing a sloppy, wet kiss on my cheek, his hand snaking up my breast to squeeze at my nipple. Nausea rocked my gut as I clenched my eyes closed.
“I’ll call the healers back in,” he sighed, reluctantly pulling away from me to stare longingly at my sister. My neck stiffened as I watched him study her.
What is he going to do? Surely, he wouldn’t take her unconscious.
Abruptly, he turned to one of his guards, who waited by the door, looking bored.
“Call the healers back in,” Jesse grunted, pivoting toward the still open exit. “Tell them to double down on their magic. I want her healed. I’ve waited long enough to have these two. I won’t put off this ceremony any longer.”
Every word was a blow to me, even though there was nothing shocking about them. Jesse had said the same thing since he’d taken us, but the reality of it was becoming more and more apparent with each passing day. Dahlia was apt to recover sooner or later, and Jesse’s limited patience was running out.
He was going to own us fully soon unless I worked faster and earned more money, but time didn’t seem to be on my side.
Without so much as a goodbye, Jesse left the house, not bothering to close the door behind him, and I hurried to secure it in his wake, ensuring that he wasn’t coming back before I rushed back to Dahlia. It wasn’t until I crouched back at her side that I realized that tears were spilling down my cheeks, landing on the bedsheets in which Dahlia was tangled.
At least I hadn’t let them fall in front of Jesse.
Chapter10
Atlas
Ithrew myself into work for the rest of the day, never bothering to return to the lost sleep that I would have no hope of recovering, anyway. I pretended that I had nothing of consequence on my mind, that the hours ticking by with far too little speed weren’t grinding on my nerves.
What if she changes her mind? What if she gets caught trying to come back?
I had left detailed and painstaking instructions to the security staff regarding her arrival.
“She is to be treated with respect and brought directly to me upon her arrival,” I informed Petyr. “I don’t want to catch word that anyone so much as looked at her the wrong way.”
My orders were understood, even though there were some confused glances. Still, everyone knew better than to question my commands, even if they seemed out of character. I was sure that Bianca wouldn’t face any further problems coming into Covale City, but that didn’t account for whatever was going on in Forny. I considered sending an escort for her, but I reasoned that was a slippery slope. I had already pushed my luck, involving myself to this point. The fates would not look kindly upon my open mocking, and I couldn’t be certain that Bianca hadn’t already been married off to Jesse.
Still, I found myself wondering what time she was going to arrive. An official time hadn’t been discussed, and I wasn’t really a scheduler. That was more Sage’s domain.
“Have you given any thought as to what you’re going to do with that girl when she arrives?”
As always, Sage entered in tandem with my thoughts. I raised my head from the paperwork, which I hadn’t really been studying, a half-smirk on my lips.
“Why do I get the sense that you’re thinking about her more than I am?”
It was the fae’s turn to leer.
“I doubt that very much,” she retorted. “However, it is my job to manage the staff, and since you have, in your infinite wisdom, added her to our payroll, I should know what her function will be, so she isn’t trailing me like a lost puppy.”
