Only Zarya had ever held that. How could she have been so stupid?
She’d had Darling wrapped around her finger. He’d been his happiest when she was a part of his life. Maris could still see the light that had been in Darling’s eyes when he spoke of her in ways he’d sell his soul to have Darling speak about him.
It wasn’t meant to be.
It could never be.
But Zarya could heal him. He knew it.
And deep down, he suspected Darling knew it, too. Why else would he have kept her here tonight? He could have easily ordered one of his soldiers to take her away. Or he could have killed her.
Instead, he’d taken her to the kitchen to work where the entire staff was female.
That said it all.
Even in his drunken rage, Darling had made sure she went untouched by another man and that she’d been put some place safe. That wasn’t the action of someone who didn’t care.
In time, Darling would forgive her for being stupid, and Maris would do everything in his power to make sure that happened sooner rather than later.
Zarya sat in her new room, completely mortified. So this is how Darling felt in our hands…
After the kitchen staff had finished dinner and then cleaned up, they had turned on her with a passion.
Everything on her body had been stripped off and stolen while they’d laughed about it. Even the pins from her hair. They’d left her with nothing, not even her undergarments.
Take that back. She still wore her damnable slave collar. Who in their right mind would want that?
Then they’d locked her in a spartan, closet-size room with the promise that they’d bring her new clothes in the morning—something Clarion had failed to do for Darling when he’d been in their custody.
There was no window, not that it mattered. She wasn’t about to try and escape with no clothes on. And while she sat on the floor with no light or blanket, all she could see was the way Darling had looked when Clarion and crew had been callously dragging him naked through the landing bay like some prized stag they’d shot in the wild.
Because of the tricom he’d made to protect her, Darling had been paralyzed. Completely unable to defend himself from them.
I spit in his face.
Tears blurred her vision. She was no better than the bitches who’d attacked her. True, his uncle had murdered her parents and sister. That her other sister and brother had been killed in the fight against his uncle.
But Darling had done nothing to deserve it. Over and over, she saw the images Maris had shown her of Darling’s wounds. Heard him telling her about Darling’s brutal past.
And that mask…
As scary as it was, it’d been nothing compared to the unreasoning hatred she’d seen in his eyes.
Eyes that were steel blue. All these years, she’d wondered what color Kere’s eyes were. She’d imagined everything from exotic humanoid species to dark like Maris’s.
Tonight that knowledge gave her no comfort at all.
It was a wonder Darling hadn’t killed her on sight. She wasn’t sure she could have held herself back if she’d been in his place.
“I’m so sorry,” she breathed. No one deserved the indignity they’d put her through. Never mind what had been done to him. At least the women hadn’t dragged her naked through public grounds.
Yet.
There’s always tomorrow.
But that wasn’t what she wanted to think about. Instead, she closed her eyes and remembered what it felt like to be held in the arms of someone who loved her.
“I want you to marry me, Zarya. I need you in my life. I know it sounds weird, but when I’m with you, I’m the man I always wanted to be. And when I’m not, it’s like I’m lost to someone else, and I don’t like him anymore. I can’t keep living the lie that was forced on me.”
Now she knew the lie.
And it broke her heart.
But tomorrow, no matter what it took or how hard it was, she was going to try and find that man he’d spoken about.
She’d found him once.
Now it was time to bring him home…
9
Darling came awake to the worst pain in his skull imaginable. His head felt like it weighed five hundred pounds and that his uncle had bounced it off the marble floor a few dozen times.
Damn, it hurt.
He pressed his hand to his forehead and went cold as he felt skin on skin. What the hell? He hadn’t removed his gloves since Syn had released him from the hospital.
Panic tore through him. How could he be in his bed without his mask and gloves?
What happened to me? He couldn’t remember anything from the night before.
Who’d undressed him?
“It’s all right, Darling.” Maris came out of the shadows to stand next to him. “You passed out last night. I carried you in here and put you to bed.”
Thank the gods for that.
But his relief was short lived. Frowning, which made his head throb even worse, Darling did his best to recall something from last night.
Everything was a fog. It was like trying to chase down a phantom wind.