Page 56 of Wedlock

Taking two steps at a time I reach where she hangs, and groan.

“Oh Christ, Sophie.”

41

Jag and I sit for a long time in silence after Asumpta has gone, until finally it becomes uncomfortable, and I clear my throat.

“Do you think she’ll come back?”

“Unlikely,” he mutters, “but I’ll find her.”

A shudder at his tone. I’d like to know if he means ‘find and kill’or‘find and punish,’but then, I kind of don’t want to know, given his reputation as a tracker and torturer. I’ve got enough shit in my head from my time under Viper’s control to last anyone a lifetime without adding any more. I don’t wish death on her, even given what she’s done to me, but I’d still like to know she wasn’t going to knock on my door one night and fang me.

Then again, it won’t matter soon, because I won’t be here.

‘Definitely best I don’t know.’

“She’s evil,” I shrug, “but she did save your life. I mean, she risked her own to take out Viper so that Falcon wouldn’t seek revenge against you. So, as much as I loathe her, she acted out of love.”

“I know that feeling well,” he says quietly.

“Jag,” I shake my head.

“I owe you an apology,” he says, bowing his head. “The deepest of apologies.”

“What? No, Jag, it wasn’t your fault.”

“I was blind,” he whispers as I take his hands and squeeze them tightly, “blind to the hints you gave, the cries for help. I’m a tracker, Angie, trained to notice the smallest of details, yet you left blazing tracks leading me to the truth and I was so blinkered by feelings for you, so self-absorbed, that I didn’t listen.”

“No, Jag,” I shake my head.

“Yes,” he groans, “when I think back to all the things you said, things Iignored. That first night, the very first night we spent together, I asked you why you hadn’t told me Tatyana was torturing you, and you replied,” he squeezes his eyes shut as though in pain, “you replied that the words wouldn’t come. You said, ‘I wish to God I could have told you, Jag, told anyone.’ You have no idea how those words have haunted me since your thrall was revealed.”

“Jag, you weren’t the only one. Eleanor suspected, and she of all people should have known, given how long she’d been held in thrall by her husband. And Falcon… I mean, in reality we didn’t, and still don’t, know each other that well, but he knew me better than anyone in this castle. I hoped, I prayed, that he at leastwould notice my personality had changed — but he didn’t. You can’t blame yourself.”

“But I do,” he mutters, pulling his hands from mine, “because I took advantage of you, Angie. You were forced to havesexwith me for Christ’s sake! I raped you. There’s no other word for it.”

“Jag,” I smile sadly and take his hands again, forcing him to meet my eyes. “Yes, I slept with you, but it was hardly rape.”

“Had you been drugged into submission, it would have been no different,” he frowns at me. “Don’t you see that?”

“I see before me a man who comforted me when I needed it, who always protected me. A man who gave me a great deal of pleasure on those nights I was ‘forced’ to sleep with him,” I say softly. “I was made to seduce you, but you were always gentle, and I was always willing. I was under a thrall, Jag, but you never raped me. If anything, I took advantage ofyou. I’m the one who has a reason to feel guilt. I lied to you, told you I loved you, tricked you into sleeping with me…”

“Yes,” he sighs, “but you also begged me to listen to your brother. Had I just taken the time to hear him out... had I learned then what you were suffering, I would never have returned you here. I would have hunted Viper to the ends of the earth and ended him.”

His eyes turn dark as he adds this, and I shudder.

Noticing, he shakes his head.

“You never need fear me, Angie.”

“I know that. Please don’t look at me like that,” I whisper, seeing the love in his eyes. “This can’t be. You know the truth now. Viper forced me to seduce you to get at Falcon. He hoped Falcon would kill you the day you returned me to this castle.”

“Yes, I know the truth,” he says quietly, “and if you tell me you love Falcon and want to make your marriage work, I’ll walk away now.”

“Either way,” I shake my head sadly.

“Do you love him still, Angie?”