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Chapter Eleven
Sasha
My thirst forblood has not been remotelysatisfied.
Hunger for violence pumps in my veins, rage chokes me and turns my knuckles white on the steering wheel.They touched my angel. They grabbed her.Every time I remember what I witnessed, wrath screams inside my skull again and the cycle startsanew.
When I walked into the party, I could not find Anya. Already I’d hit a dead end at the orientation hall and was about to return home in my borrowed car, thinking Anya must be headed back, until I overhead some young men discussing the party. My skin prickled, and I never deny an instinct. Anya is curious. If given the chance, she would appease thatnature.
I saw those boys putting chemicals in a drink and was resolving to teach them a lesson, when I found out the drink was formywife.
My teeth bare themselves at the road and I can’t keep my ear - piercing bellow inside. Anya flinches in the passenger seat and curls in on herself, whimpering softly, tears wetting her cheeks. There’s nothing I can do about seeing to her comfort yet. She will never know the panic and rage that burned me alive when hands —hands that weren’t mine— touched her skin. In a way that was meant to be harmful. My worst fucking nightmare come tolife.
From the corner of my eye, I watch Anya swipe at her tears, and my chest seizes. “How did you drive without yourcar?”
“You say that with irritation. As if you’renotglad Icame.”
“No. I just needed to ask you something to test if you’re speaking to me.” My righteous anger weakens somewhat in the face of such sweetness. “Of course I’m glad you came, Sasha. You rescued me.” She blows out a breath. “You were right all along to keep me inside where it’s safe. So was my father. I don’t know anything about the world. I was…I was stupid to think it would be easy. Or that I could do italone.”
At this point, she’s making it very difficult to be mad. I still plan to murder the boys who laid hands on my wife — no one will miss them — but that is now a separate concern. Anya is my main one. And I’ve never heard her sound defeated in the entire time I’ve knownher.
“Oh, I don’t know…” I cut her a glance and try to sound casual. “You got the drop on Sasha, no? You stole my car and drove two hours before I ever knew you were gone. That should not be disregarded soeasily.”
“So what? None of it mattersnow.”
I watch in growing dismay as she rolls down the passenger side window and throws the stack of white envelopes out onto the road. “What are you doing?” I’m already pulling over the car onto the shoulder, watching in the rearview as the papers dance on the road. “For the last fifty miles, you have been so enamored with those envelopes, I was beginning to get jealous, Anya. Now you throw themaway?”
“I thought if I could show you how responsible I can be…and how much I want to go to school, you would reconsider. But you’re not going to let me go back.” She turns away, as if I can’t see her face in the passenger window she just rolled up. More tears. They eat at me, every single one. “They don’t mean anythingnow.”
I could lose her — right here and now, I realize. Oh, she’ll come home and be my wife. She’ll eat meals with me, sleep by my side, moan while I fuck her, resume her daily swims in a new pool. After the fight, my decision to compromise on college seemed like a thing of the past. But she just threw a piece of herself out the window. And I can’t let her do that, no matter how difficult it is for me. I love her far too much. She has accepted my demanding nature, and it is only fair that I attempt to accept she needs to spread herwings.
Already on the way to retrieve her, I’d decided she must attend college. To refuse her something she wants so terribly would be a crime. It would dim her happiness. Which would, in turn, dim my entire reason forliving.
“Anya, look at me.” I reach over and brush her cheek with my thumb. “Please.”
She turns luminous green eyes on me, making my tongue feel thick. “What?”
I take a deep breath and force my need for control to loosen. “There is a safe, gated community near the school. On the drive to meet you, I needed a distraction from my panic, so I made some inquiries with an agent.” Her lips pop open as I continue. “During the week, we will live in an apartment off campus. On the weekend, we will return home.” I nod once. “You will go to school, angel. I’m sorry I said no in the first place. We should have…discussed it. Do you forgiveme?”
“Forgive…you?” she breathes, twisting toward me in the seat. “This isn’t a joke? Even after what happened…you really mean it,Sasha?”
“Da. As long as you’re patient and let me escort you to class until I know you’re safe — andno morefucking frat parties — then, yes. I mean it. I want you to behappy.”
Something melts in her eyes, her bottom shifting in the seat. I’m beginning to recognize this look. The angel wants my cock planted between her thighs. “Thank you, Sasha,” she breathes, a different kind of tears painting those green irises. “I love you so much right now. I’m not even going to make you call myfather.”
“It is alreadydone.”
She straightens. “And?”
Darkness twists in my stomach. I’m not going to ruin this moment of progress between us by recapping that troubling conversation. “He has made his peace withus.”
My intelligent wife nods solemnly, as if she understands I’m leaving out the important parts, before transferring her attention to the rearview mirror. I do the same. Then we both climb out of the car to collect her college papers. On the way down the shoulder, she reaches over and twines her fingers withmine.
When I rub my thumb across her knuckles, I notice a slight wince and remember. “In my anger, I forgot about that right cross you delivered.” Pride swims in my chest. “Just as I taught you. I’m veryimpressed.”
“Thank you. It felt really good.” A car flies past, the breeze lifting her hair against her smiling mouth. “You know, my birthday is coming up soon. I wouldn’t mind a pair of those brassknuckles.”
My instinct is to saynyet, she will not need to protect herself again as long as I’m walking the earth. But instead I say, “We willdiscuss.”
