by T Stedman
Outside they could hear the slamming of car doors as everyone started to get out of their vehicles.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded.
He opened the door, got out first, and then helped her out. Then he surrounded her with his body to protect her from the light, and well, just to be near her for whatever short time he had left with her.
As they walked along the little path up to the back door, she started to call out. “Jay! Jay! Are you here?” She tried to run towards the house.
Dante grabbed her quickly. “No Tia, he’s over there.” And he turned her body to face the car that stopped behind theirs. Jay was getting a holdall out of the boot. She was looking all around but Dante could tell she couldn’t see very much. She just kept calling in her little cracked voice.
Dante got down to her eye line and pointed her arm to where Jay was. He stood up as she ran to him. Her feet were bare, but she seemed oblivious to the stones as she slammed into Jay.
Dante was forced to watch as Jay slowly and stiffly let his arms come around her. He held her while he ran his fingers into her hair that was one tangled knot.
Dante walked over slowly. “I’m going to go straight back,” he said to both of them. “I’ll give you a few days, but then can you bring her to Ireland, Jay? I’ll take Keenan and Lacy back with me now.”
“Sure,” Jay said, nodding.
Tia was still clinging onto Jay.
“Tia,” Dante continued softly, “I’ll see you just before the presentation, okay?”
She nodded against Jay’s chest, still unwilling to let him go.
Dante looked at Jay. “Thank you. Look after her?” he said to his old friend, hoping his pain didn’t leech out too much into his face.
“No worries, man.”
His heart was heavy as he walked back to the car and watched Jay walk her into the house. He got in the car and waited while Reeve got his pack and told Keenan that he and Lacy were going as well. Several of the Guard would stay and the rest would head back to their New York headquarters. Then they would come later to the presentation.
Dante took a last look at the house. This is how my life’s going to be, he thought. Better get used to it.
Chapter 32
On the journey back, Jay had convinced himself that Tia was better off with Dante. It was a growing conviction since he’d left and gone back to London. So when Dante had saved her, it seemed right somehow. Whichever way he looked at it, it was best all round.
Living without feeling was what he did best. Whether it was endless one night stands with faceless women, playing hardball in business or blowing the brains out of some sick doctor-type. It didn’t matter.
So when he’d seen Dante wrapped around her leading her to the house, he was already insulated against that. But then when he saw her struggle in Dante’s arms calling for him, and then Dante pointing him out and her running blindly to him, it was a shock.
As she slammed into his chest it was as though a defibrillator had whacked his heart back into action. All he could do was comfort her despite what his logical brain was telling him.
Her hair had been hacked off, her eyes were shot to pieces and her skin was grey. She was a mess. He was filled with an overwhelming instinct to protect her and give her anything she needed.
When Dante had said goodbye, he felt for him, knowing how much this woman meant to him. And with his usual grace he was bowing out and leaving them to it. Perhaps there was a way forward after all. The way she’d clung to him was sobering.
As they walked in and reached the living room, Keenan was heading back out with Lacy. The girls stopped in front of each other.
“Hello, Tia isn’t it?” Lacy said, tentatively and then looked at Keenan for reassurance.
“Hello Lacy,” Tia managed, though her voice was barely audible. “I can’t see you that well today.”
“We’ll see each other in Ireland though, won’t we?” Lacy reassured her and looked at Keenan while she said it.
Tia nodded.
“Good luck, and thanks, Keenan,” Jay said, holding his hand out to shake.
“Likewise,” Keenan said, firmly shaking Jay’s hand. “We’ll see you in a few days.” Then he ushered Lacy out the back way, through the kitchen.
Sean and Cash came over to them next and hugged her in turn. “Welcome home darlin’,” Cash said.
She had no trouble identifying them. She breathed them both in as she hugged them, and sobbed into them at the comfort.
Jay was about to lead her up the stairs when Sarah, stood on the first landing, barred their way. Jay stood still with Tia.
“I’m so sorry Tia,” Sarah said, horror all over her face as she took in the state of her.
“Don’t worry Sarah, please. It’s not your fault, okay?”
Sarah blinked back her tears and stood aside.
Jay helped Tia stumble slowly up the stairs to their bedroom.
***
Tia flopped down on the edge of the bed and felt her hair all over.
“Do you need anything?” Jay asked.
“Can you get some scissors and even up my hair a bit?”
“Me? I’m no Nicky Clarke you know.”
“Please,” she said, quietly.
She heard him disappear out of the room and come back through the door and close it after a few minutes. She could make out shapes, light and dark. That was about it.
Jay pulled a stool over and showed her where it was and she sat down on it. Gently he picked up what was left of her beautiful, lustrous hair and cut it slowly into similar lengths. The rasp of the scissors sounded hypnotic.
As the hair curled around itself now the weight was removed, it didn’t look half bad.
“You look like a pixie version of Marilyn.”
She smiled. “Thank you.”
“Do you want some food?”
She shook her head. “I want to wash my hair. And I want to feel you naked with me.”
“Come with me,” he said.
She shrugged out of the lab coat and stepped out of her knickers on the way to the bathroom.
He switched on the shower and guided her over the step and under the spray. She faced ahead, her blank eyes neither seeing nor blinking. She felt the most miserable person alive. Until she felt his skin brush hers as he stepped into the shower with her … mmm.
Gently, he made sure her hair was completely wet and squeezed lemon-smelling shampoo into his hands and gently worked it through her hair. It felt wonderful to her. It was the best therapy, washing it all away with beautiful, soft, loving hands.
He rinsed it off, making sure all the soap was out, and then picked up the shower gel. He lathered it in his hands and moved them over her neck and back and then made sure he was gentle over her grazes and bruises on her arms and legs. Slowly, he made his way down to her ankles and feet.
She stroked his hair and back as he bent down in front of her. As he stood back up she put her hands on either side of his face and guided his mouth down to hers. She brushed her lips softly over his and coaxed him to open with her tongue. A small murmur escaped him as he complied and gently kissed her.
He broke their kiss gently, and, as soft as butterflies, glided his lips down her neck to her shoulder and lower till his mouth closed around one beautiful peak and then the other. She was already breathing hard. Her skin was so sensitive. She looked down at Jay and then her body. Even in her blindness she could see the stark black bands on her skin against her paleness. “I’m ugly,” she said, and went to pull away from him.
He stood up and held her shoulders. “You could never be ugly,” he said, quietly.
She could feel his eyes roaming over her. “It’s what you are, and you’re what I want.”
He bent down and kissed her again, more urgently this time. “I can’t help myself.”
“Yes… please Jay.” At that moment nothing was as important as feeling him near her, on her and in her.
He lift
ed her as he’d done so many times before and she leapt up and gripped him with her legs around his waist. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he murmured, against her mouth.
“I won’t break.”
“Neither will I.” And he pulled her down onto him in one ruthless thrust.
She gasped and gripped onto the muscle on his shoulder with her teeth and bit him hard. The overwhelming need to suck his lifeblood through his skin overcame her. Salt and copper mixed with the water on his skin and seeped into her mouth. This drove him into the ferocity of rhythm she wanted, on and on, over and over.
When his arms could no longer hold her he sank down the wall of the shower onto the floor, shifting his back against the tiles. She straddled him, completely lost to sensation. Her temperature soared but she revelled in the feeling she could have lost forever. She bit, scratched and scolded him for leaving her. He took it all in his quiet self-assured way and concentrated on giving her the upmost pleasure.
They moved together – he with one hand on her waist while the other pulled her to his lips by the neck. “Please Tia…” he whispered with his mouth moving against hers.
It felt so good. She was so close. She licked him to gain entry to his mouth and moved her body with him as she kissed him deeply. She could feel he was so close too. “Aagh…” She pulled away from his mouth. He pulled her down, tighter onto him, merciless in his strength, battering her resolve. “No …” she cried.
“Please Tia,” he whispered again. “I need … I need you in me …”
Those words of need ripped away the last of her willpower and she put her lips on his and his mouth parted. A gasp escaped him as she felt him almost there. She blew very gently at first and heard his wonderful groan of pleasure. She felt it bubbling up in her – her light and her climax at the same time. She just blew her essence for one second in a blast and stopped and pulled away from him to stop herself from completing the flow.
He clamped down on her shoulder and came, wave after wave, shudder after shudder, and pulse after pulse. She followed him on the first wave of his pleasure. His words made holding off any longer hopeless. Her orgasm shot through her nervous system and tingled her lips to her toes and buzzed like electricity. The feel of him in ecstasy totally did it for her as she ground down onto him and clutched him to her with all her might.
She sagged her weight onto him. He slowly relaxed and shuddered every now and again until he sat still. His arms were still around her and he sucked gently on her shoulder.
She sat back slightly and felt his face. “I can’t see you,” she said. “Do you feel okay? Be honest.”
“I feel fucking brilliant.”
She could feel his lips smiling against her skin. “Really?”
“Yeah. Give me a minute though, I feel like I just ran two hundred metres.”
She held him until his breathing got back to normal. Then they stood up together and he gently put her back onto her feet. Her hands felt up to his cheeks again to see if he felt hot. A bit. “Are you okay really?”
“Yes, Keenan gave me another shot of that stuff, just in case.”
“Oh … thank God,” she sighed.
Somehow between Jay’s wobbly legs and her blindness, they made it to the bed. After rubbing each other dry, they slid between the sheets. Tia felt safe, cool and content, lying in Jay’s arms. “Back where I belong,” she whispered on a sigh.
He kissed her forehead.
They were quiet for a while and just enjoyed the moment.
“Dante will only give us a couple of days before he has to do the presentation,” Jay said, half-asleep.
“I know.” She was trying to think of a way of broaching the subject, which had preoccupied her mind since before she’d been taken.
“He said you have to pledge again when your sister does it for the first time?”
“Yes.”
He roused himself and turned onto his side and looked at her. “Are you okay … you’re very quiet.”
She swallowed a lump in her throat. “I just can’t believe I’m back here with you and the people I love,” and a tear escaped the corner of her eye.
Jay caught it with the pad of his thumb. “Why not think about what you want us to do after the ceremony? We can go anywhere you want in the world.”
She latched onto his neck and cuddled him hard as if someone would rip him away from her.
“Hey, what is this?” He pulled her back and shook her slightly and searched her face.
“I have to go away, Jay,” she said, eventually.
“Away … you just got back?” he said, not understanding.
“I’ve got to do something only my mother can help me with.”
Jay was quiet, then frowned. “You can’t tell me?”
“No, Jay I can’t. Not yet.”
His expression hardened. “Do you have to be with Dante, is that it?”
“No, I don’t think so. I’m going away from him too. You’ve just got to trust me … I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”
“Does he know yet?” he said, still cautious.
She shook her head. Then she reached out and felt his hot face and ran her thumb softly across his lips. “Do you not feel my love in you now?”
He nodded and kissed her fingers.
“That can’t lie.”
This seemed to satisfy him. “When will you go?”
“I’m not sure – straight after the presentation, probably.”
***
The bombshell she’d dropped put a bit of a dampener on their last few days together. Jay became her eyes, but studied her and worried about her. She coped without her sight, wasn’t eating but seemed happy enough. She was certainly insatiable in the bedroom – or the bathroom, should he say, breathing into him now every time. She’d become confident that he could survive it, so there were no complaints there.
He’d had niggling doubts in the past that she didn’t want to breathe into him because Dante would know, and she didn’t want to hurt him, but the last couple of days blew that theory out of the water. Maybe he just had to chill out and take her at her word. After all, she’d never lied to him so far.
The day came for them to go back to Ireland. He told her to go and say goodbye to her horse, as they were leaving soon, and took the opportunity to ring Dante.
“Dant?”
“Jay! You on your way?”
“Just leaving.”
“What’s up?”
“Has Tia said anything to you about leaving?”
“Last night.”
He was about to ask how, when he realised. “In her head?”
“Yeah … sorry mate. If it is any conciliation, that ability ain’t all good news.”
Then realising what Dante meant. “Oh yeah, suppose not.”
“I think you get the better deal.”
Jay heard the smile in Dante’s voice and conceded. “Good point. Do you know where she is going?”
“I think so.”
“But you’re not sure.”
“No… she just asked me to tell her mother, that what she spoke to her about, was happening and she needed her.”
“What did her mum say?”
“She said she will make the arrangements for after the presentation.”
“That was it?”
“That was it.”
Jay cut to the chase. “Where do you think she is going, Dant?”
“Murrtaine.”
Chapter 33
Four days after Tia had been rescued, she and Jay arrived at Ballygowan Castle with Sean, Sarah and Cash. Dante welcomed them all warmly.
The castle was a hive of activity, getting ready to host the important bash the next day. Dante had taken up permanent residence there, so Ballygowan had become the centre of the Atlantean world that important Atlanteans flocked to.
They were all shown to their bedrooms below sea level. On their way Tia bumped into her sister Lacy coming in the other direction with Keenan. They all stopped
to greet each other. Keenan pumped Jay’s hand as well as Cash and Sean’s.
Tia touched Lacy’s arm lightly as she went by and whispered. “I’ll see you later. We’ll talk, away from the men, okay?”
A flicker of worry crossed Lacy’s face, but she whispered back, “okay.”
Jay led Tia along the rest of the corridor and into their bedroom. He took her bag and put it out of the way.
There was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” Jay said.
Dante came in a moment later. “Hey, I just wanted to see you privately because I’ve got something for Tia.”
She looked over in his direction. “What is it?”
“As soon as I came back, I sent a message to my cousin Vionne in Murrtaine, and asked whether there was anything that could be done about your eyes.”
“Really?” she said, hope blooming in her face. “Did they have something?”
“I have it here.”
Jay walked over to Dante to look.
“They are eye drops,” Dante explained, “like liquid lenses. Then when you are in water they dissolve.”
“Can we do it now?” Tia asked.
“We can try. You sure you don’t want to rest first?”
“No Dante, I want to see.”
He walked nearer to her. Jay came close as well.
Dante gently smoothed her hair out of her eyes. “Can you look up and open your eyes wide? Try and relax.”
She did as he asked.
He put two drops in each eye as Vionne had directed.
She shut her eyes tightly. Her hands came up to them immediately. “They’re stinging.”
Dante tugged her hands down and pulled her into his arms. “Don’t rub them. It’s important Tia. Let it work.”
Jay frowned. “How does it work?”
“Fuck knows,” Dante said. “I don’t know if it mends them or covers them. All I know is it’s supposed to change them to look and work like they’re supposed to.”
After a few minutes she was able to unclench her hands and relax. Dante put her away from him slightly. “Can you try to open them?” he said.
She very slowly flickered her eyelids and opened them a bit at a time. Everything was blurry at first, but gradually colours were visible and then shapes, then everything became clearer as she opened them fully.