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I wanted a beer to drown out those whispers, but after what’d happened earlier today, I never wanted to drink again. Alcohol amplified my despair and was why I wore so many painful bruises.
I did my best to stay present and not succumb to exhaustion and fear.
I marvelled at how quickly things could change. Six hours ago, Jack had been beating me to death for abusing his daughter. And now, he nodded in my direction with respect and awe, willingly giving me the same daughter he’d beaten me for.
If something that profound could change that quickly, then...why couldn’t everything else in my life?
Why couldn’t I believe I was safe now? That I’d paid my dues and deserved this? Deserved her.
As the night wore on, Anna caught my eyes each time Neri leaned into me, whispering something sweet in my ear. I braced for a scowl and blinked in surprise when Anna swooned instead. And when Jack stood at the head of the table, the top button of his pants undone from the indulgence of rich food, he raised his sweating beer glass and toasted me.
Me.
He saluted me with his drink and made my heart fucking burst with a simple but perfect welcome into his family.
“To Aslan. To Neri. To love and belonging.”
Anna stood and wrapped her arms around him, and Neri sighed with utter happiness beside me. And I’d almost broken into fucking tears again, because how lucky was I that Jack was a romantic at heart? For all his gruffness and sternness, beneath his shell, he believed in love as much as I did.
He didn’t judge me for my circumstances.
He didn’t question Neri’s choice to be with me or belittle our convictions because of our tender age.
He accepted that fate had intervened, and...there was no stopping it.
He let me propose to her.
He let her accept me.
He knew this was for life because he’d found his ever after with Anna.
It was a testament to him as a man that he understood that I’d found my ever after with Neri.
I didn’t care that I’d lived with them for years—that this was my fifth Christmas with the Taylors. In that moment, in that delicious, wonderful moment, I felt truly at home for the first time since I’d left Turkey.
* * * * *
Boxing Day arrived, and no one got out of bed until ten o’clock.
Well, that wasn’t technically true.
Neri slept in her room; I slept in mine. After everything I’d been given last night, I hadn’t dared broach the subject of sleeping arrangements. I didn’t care if Jack never let us share a room, just as long as we could share a house. But just as she’d been sneaking into my sala since she was thirteen, I woke at dawn to my door creaking open. The first rays of sunshine shone shyly as she darted to my bed.
I groaned as her warm, delicious body wriggled under my blankets.
I scooted against the wall, making room for her.
She lay on her side and let me spoon her.
I cradled her close and tried to go back to sleep, to give the stiffness and pain from my endless injuries time to heal, but Neri slipped her night shorts down her legs and arched her lower half deeper into mine.
I sucked in a harsh breath.
The feel of her silky bare thighs. The heat radiating from her core. The way she teased my rapidly hardening erection with her ass.
Fuck.
All the familiar forbiddenness between us and the sneaking around that’d become second nature made my heart lurch with fear that we’d be caught. Jack could march in at any moment and see the blankets moving as I thrust into his daughter.
