Page 9 of Vain (Tempest #2)

Chapter Nine

AIDEN

It’s been five days.

Five days since I fucked up. Five days since I watched her disappear up the stairs, putting distance between us as she reinforced that wall around her heart.

The urge to follow her had ridden me hard, but that wasn’t what she wanted or needed.

If I’d chased her, I’d have lost her for good.

Any trust I’d established between us turned to ash the second I flinched away from her.

So, instead of pushing her when she was at her breaking point, I hung back, fighting my instincts, grinding my teeth so hard my jaw ached. Once her door closed, I followed her up to the top floor, despite her warning not to, and sat outside her door as she sobbed her fucking heart out.

And every night for the last five nights, I’ve found myself in the same place, listening to her weep. Every sob breaking my fucking heart.

She’s avoided me, holding herself up in her suite, sending down for food even though Marley seemed unsurprised by the request. I expected him and Greyson to ask questions.

After all, she left with a smile and returned in tears.

Instead, they took it in stride, assuming her hiding out was due to pushing herself out of her comfort zone by going to the studio.

I didn’t correct them, but couldn’t look them in the eyes either, as the guilt ate me alive.

And now the house is quiet once more as Matilda finally drifts off to sleep. I sit in the dark with my back to her door and let my eyes drift closed as I fight the urge to punch something.

I did this. I fucked up, and I don’t know how to fix it.

I had one shot, one way to react, and I fucking choked.

I grip my hair, yanking it hard, the sting clearing my thoughts a little.

I should have paid more attention when she told me what happened to her, but I didn’t make the connection.

When she told me the helmet saved her, I assumed she escaped the acid altogether.

“Fuck,” I groan quietly to myself as I remember the feel of the scar tissue beneath her shirt. She didn’t escape anything. No wonder she locked herself away for months. She wasn’t just hiding, she was healing. That’s why Daniel’s so pissed with himself. She got hurt on his watch—hurt badly.

I rub my hands over my face, trying to erase the hurt in her expression that haunts me every time I close my eyes.

Who knows what she’s thinking right now?

Her reaction was filled with horror. It bled into every jolting movement and painful whispered word.

I hurt her, and I need to make it right. But I have no idea how.

I don’t know how long I sit there, unable to go to her, unable to leave her alone. Though she stopped crying a while ago, I don’t find any comfort in her silence.

Getting to my feet, I stretch out the kinks and head down the stairs, working on a plan, when I hear Tilly’s gut-wrenching scream.

I don’t think twice about not being allowed on the top floor.

All I care about is getting to my girl. I fly back down the hall to her room, her screams getting louder the closer I get.

I turn the doorknob, cursing when I find it locked.

I take a step back, lift my leg and kick the fucking thing in.

I pull my gun and run inside, freezing when I see Tilly curled up in the fetal position on the end of her sofa, screaming herself hoarse. I place my gun back in its holster, drop to my knees, and shake her awake.

“Tilly. Tilly!” I yell, trying to reach her. All of a sudden, her screams stop, as if someone flipped a switch and turned them off.

Slowly, she cracks open her swollen eyes and focuses on me. “Aiden?”

Jesus fuck, her voice sounds ravaged. I scoop her up and pull her into my lap, wrapping my arms tightly around her.

“It’s me. I’ve got you, Tilly. Nothing is going to happen to you, I swear to god. I’ve got you.” I repeat it over and over as she clings to me and sobs.

Once the sobs quiet, I get to my feet with her still in my arms and carry her to the bedroom.

A large four-poster bed dominates the room, covered in simple white bedding with a frill at the edge.

It’s soft and feminine, just like Matilda.

I don’t bother looking around the rest of the room.

I lay her in the middle of the bed with her head on the pillows.

She’s barefoot, wearing a pair of light gray sweatpants and a black long-sleeved T-shirt.

Both seem comfortable enough for her to sleep in so I leave her be for a second as I pull my gun out and place it on the bedside table along with my cell phone.

I toe off my boots and climb on the bed beside her, half expecting her to yell at me and kick me out.

Instead, she rolls into me, burrowing in deeper when I pull her into my arms and move her so she’s lying half over my chest.

She fists the fabric of my T-shirt in her hands as she takes a deep, shuddering breath. I press my hand to her back, holding her in place as she tenses under my touch. I skim my lips across her forehead.

“I’m so sorry, baby.”

She sniffs but doesn’t speak. After a little while, she relaxes into me completely.

We lie like that in the dark for over an hour, finding comfort in each other. Just when I think she’s dropped off to sleep, she starts talking.

“The helmet and gloves protected my face and hands, but the tank top I was wearing did nothing to protect the rest of me.” She pauses to catch her breath.

I hold still and wait for her to continue.

“At first, I didn’t understand what was happening.

The pain was excruciating, like nothing I’d ever felt before in my life.

The way I stood meant the set itself shielded my back, but it wasn’t enough.

The acid quickly covered my shoulder and arm.

There was so much panic and confusion. Someone tore my tank top away to help, but it exposed me even more.

It ran down the side of my stomach and drenched the top of my leggings.

It soaked through the thin material, burning my upper thigh and hip.

Someone picked me up and threw me into the shower in my trailer.

I don’t really remember much after that.

I kept drifting in and out of consciousness until a week later when I woke up in the hospital.

The doctor said if they hadn’t kept me in that shower the whole time they waited for the paramedics to arrive, the damage would have been even more extensive.

Untreated acid burns eat through the layers of skin, all the way down to the bone in some cases.

I keep telling myself I was lucky, but it doesn’t keep the nightmares at bay. ”

I roll us until our positions are reversed, and I’m lying over her. “Fuck, I don’t even know what to say.”

She shrugs, but she won’t meet my eye. “There’s nothing to say.

It’s fucked-up. But I’m still here, still alive, and I know it could have been worse.

The seventeen-year-old girl I mentioned has extensive facial scarring and lost vision in her right eye.

She has life-changing injuries, Aiden. I have no right to sit here and complain when?—”

“Fuck that. You have every right. You’re as much a victim as she was. You can’t compare your pain to hers and vice versa. Trauma is trauma. There is no sliding scale. You’re either a survivor, or you’re dead.”

She blows out a shaky breath before looking up at me with wet lashes. “My therapist says what I went through makes me as much of a victim as them. Perhaps even more so because I hold onto so much guilt, knowing I was the target and they were hurt because of me.”

I’m about to correct her, but she shakes her head. “I’m working on it. Logic is not always my friend.”

I skim my thumb across her cheekbone. She tenses and swallows. “You shouldn’t be here,” she whispers as she turns away.

I cup her jaw, forcing her to look at me.

“Fuck that. I’m exactly where I need to be.

” I kiss her softly but pull back before I can deepen it.

“My reaction downstairs that day was not because your scars grossed me out. It’s because I was angry that someone hurt you, and I could have lost you before I even knew you were mine. ”

“I’m—”

“You’re mine,” I repeat. “Don’t doubt that for a single second.

I don’t care if this is fast and reckless.

I felt the connection between us the second I laid eyes on you.

I’ve been going out of my mind the last few days without you.

I know it’s not normal. I just don’t care.

I’m not sure I believe in shit like destiny or fate, but I wholeheartedly believe I’m here for a reason. ”

“To guard me?”

“To claim you.” I nip her lip before lifting my head and staring down into those confused and wary eyes. “I don’t know how this will work, but we’ll figure it out.”

“How can you be so sure?” she whispers, with something like hope and fear in her eyes.

“I don’t know, but I am.”

She sighs but doesn’t say anything else, even though I can read a million questions on her lips.

“Let me get you ready for bed.”

I get up onto my knees and hook my fingers in the waistband of her sweatpants before she realizes what I’m doing.

She grabs my hands to stop me. “I can’t. I’m not?—”

“You’re perfect. Nothing is going to happen, not tonight. But you’re exhausted, and I want to hold you.”

“Aiden,” she pleads as I tug the material lower, her cheeks red with embarrassment.

“Let me see. Trust me, Tilly.”

It takes her a moment or two, but eventually, she moves her hands away, which I take as permission. She looks away as I slowly tug the material down her legs before tossing it aside.

As she said, the scarring is contained to her thigh and hip. I can see she’s had some skin grafts to help minimize the damage, but there is only so much that can be done for this kind of scarring.

I bend down and press my lips to her thigh, making her jolt and gasp in shock.

“You have no reason to be worried, Tilly. I promise.”

I pull her up into a sitting position. I raise her arms before slowly sliding her T-shirt up her body.

She tenses, but it doesn’t stop me as I toss the T-shirt to the floor.

I ease the straps of her bra down her shoulders, dragging my fingertip across her damaged skin, before reaching around, unhooking it, and slipping it the rest of the way off.

She bows her head as I press another kiss to the worst of the scarring on her shoulder.

I nudge her to lie back down as I trail my lips down her arm to her wrist before lifting her hand and pressing a kiss on her palm.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.”

“The scars, they’re?—”

“Proof you won. I mean, look at you,” I tell her, letting my eyes rove over her body. “Look, how fucking strong you are.”

She eyes me like she’s not sure she believes me. I take her wrist and press her hand to my rock-hard cock. “My dick never lies. And right now, he wants in you so fucking bad.”

She swallows, looking completely lost for words.

I pull her hand free and slip my fingers through hers, pinning her hands above her head as I lean down over her.

I kiss her, taking my time to sip at her lips.

I nip, suck, and bite as I coax her to let me in.

When she does, she surrenders so sweetly I almost come in my pants.

I pull back and look down at her swollen lips. “Tonight, I just want to hold you. When I heard you screaming, I thought the worst. I get where Daniel’s coming from now because I don’t know what the fuck I’d do if anything happened to you.”

She nuzzles her face against my jaw. “Who the hell are you, Aiden?”

“That’s easy. I’m yours.”