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“Please take off your clothes, I want to feel you,” Penny demanded and with immediate effect, he took all of his clothes off, for there was nothing she would ask of him that he would not do.

The feel of her hands on his chest brought him so much pleasure that his cock twitched between them.

“I need to be inside you, Sunshine,” was the only warning he gave before his erection slid across the damp curl between her legs, parting her open to receive him. He filled her completely.

The silky heat between her thighs captured him, and he expired.

He thrust into her, the tendons on his neck standing out in sharp relief. He was home.

Penny shut her eyes tight, and rotated her hips around his cock in slow circles, just like he taught her to do. He blew a hot breath in her ear, panting her name as she moved beneath him. He pulled out of her almost all the way, then plunged deep, reaching into the most sensitive part of her. Penny let out an animalistic moan of pleasure.

With faces close and fingers entwined, they moved to the raw rhythm of their bodies until they were both spent.

Rhysand wrapped his arms around Penny’s waist as they lay in bed, enjoying the silence before Penny spoke.

“You know, I have never been close with my father for reasons that are beyond me. For the longest while, I felt as though he never liked me, and I resented him a little for it. He is capable of a lot of things, but I do not believe murder of that scale is part of it,” she paused and bit her lower lip, “I strongly believe someone else must have been part of it,” Penny tried to pick her words as carefully as she could. She was half scared that Rhysand would take her words negatively, and the progress they made in the past days would go down the drain, but Rhysand hummed and nodded in response, saying nothing.

“I apologize if my words were out of line,” Penny apologized after a beat had passed. Rhysand had pulled her closer and shook his head.

“You do not have to apologize to me. He is your father; it is only natural that you try to protect him.”

Relief flooded Penny’s chest at his words. He understood her heart, and he still did not let her go from his embrace.

Even at the ball they had attended two nights ago, Rhysand did not let Penny out of his side. He hooked a firm hand around her waist and kept it there the whole night while everyone socialized. News about what had happened at Thornbury Hall had circulated and ceased. The Ton had expressed that they expected that much from him as he was the heartless, Cruel Duke.

Penny had tried to defend him, but Rhysand claimed he did not care what the ton thought about him. They were not a part of his family, so what they thought about him did little to hurt his feelings.

A heavy sigh exited Penny’s lips as she alighted the carriage in front of her birth home. Uncle Harold had succeeded in pulling Rhysand out of the house, and finally, Penny had the freedom to do what she had meant to do for weeks. It was not as though Rhysand stopped her from visiting her family home, but she knew if she told him she was going there, he would drop everything aside and come along with her. She loved his presence around her, but she needed to do this alone.

Randolph, her family’s butler, opened the doors to Hislop's estate with a broad smile.

“Hello, Randolph,” she smiled at him. They indulged in a little conversation about how he and the other staff had been faring, but she knew they were doing well as Rhysand provided enough for them to survive while looking over the house for when Patrick would return.

If he would return.

After ending her pleasantries with Randolph, Penny made the short journey to the small lake a little distance from her family house. What she was about to indulge in was a perilous gamble that could render her dead, but she needed the closure.

When she fell into the lake all those weeks ago, Penny noticed that a little bit of her memory had surfaced, and she was eager to do it again. Perhaps this time, she would find the reason why her mother tried to drown her.

Penny had not been near the lake in years since her accident, but there was something nostalgic about it. It looked different from the lake behind Thornbury Hall; it was not maintained and had long shrubs and unwanted plants growing in different places around the water.

I should have done this at the lake in Thornbury Hall.She sighed. But she could not if she wanted to find the desired answers. Her heart hammered violently against her chest the closer she went to the lake. She was not foolish to throw her entire body into the lake, so she focused on her feet.

With a deep, shaky breath, she neared the lake, stepping into the shallow part of the water and closing her eyes.

Blurry memories passed through her mind, but just like the last time, she saw a pair of arms forcefully pushing her head down. Her memories had cleared around that signet ring again and nothing more. With a dejected sigh, Penny returned to her family house, walking around the corridor with hopes that her memory might clear up in more parts than the large hands that held her down.

As she walked, she passed an old family portrait on the wall. The portrait held all her family members from a time she could not recall. Everyone looked happy, especially her mother, who smiled sweetly with Penny’s hand on her shoulder.

Penny’s eyes dragged to her mother’s hand in the portrait. It seemed her mother had not worn the pretty expensive signet ring for the portrait. Penny sighed and dragged her eyes over the younger-looking members of her family. Then, her eyes stopped at her father. She shook her head.

Tis impossible. Papa is not capable of such.Penny took a breath. Instantly, she recalled her conversation with Rhysand and the truth of what her father had done to his family. Her eyes unwillingly dragged down to his hands, and a gasp escaped her lips.

On her father’s fingers sat the signet ring she had seen in her memories.

Chapter27

It is not possible. I am simply imagining things.