Chapter 10 - WHISPERS IN THE DARK
Dawn broke over Lake Michigan in ribbons of lavender and pale gold.
The Voss estate was quiet.
The broken glass had been swept away.
The shattered doors had been replaced with reinforced mahogany panels.
In the second-floor master suite, a fire crackled warmly in the massive stone hearth.
Isabella sat on the edge of the king-sized bed, wearing an oversized cashmere sweater that belonged to Adrien.
Her wrists were bandaged with clean white gauze.
Adrien sat on a low leather stool before her, his shirt unbuttoned to reveal the dark purple bruise across his ribs where the bullet had struck.
Isabella held a warm cloth, gently dabbing herbal ointment across his bruised chest.
Every time she touched him, his breath hitched.
“Does it hurt?” she whispered.
“Only when I breathe,” he replied with a faint smirk.
Isabella shook her head, tears threatening to spill again.
“You’re impossible.”
“You hired me, remember?”
“I hired an angel,” Adrien murmured, his gaze locking onto hers with searing intensity.
“And I almost let monsters take you away.”
Isabella lowered the cloth.
Her fingers trailed down the hard planes of his chest, tracing the edge of the purple bruise.
“Why didn't you stop me at the door yesterday afternoon?” she asked.
The question had lingered in her mind through every terrifying hour.
“You saw my suitcase.”
“You knew the train was leaving.”
“Why did you step aside?”
Adrien reached up and covered her small hand with his own.
He pressed her palm firmly over his beating heart.
It was steady, powerful, and fast.
“Because for two years, I watched you work in silence,” Adrien confessed.
His voice was a low, intimate rumble.
“I watched you carry an unbearable sadness that I didn't understand.”
“I thought you hated this house.”
“I thought you hated me.”
“And I swore to myself that I would never be the kind of monster who kept a woman prisoner.”
Isabella leaned forward until her forehead rested against his.
She closed her eyes, breathing in his warmth.
“I never hated you, Adrien,” she breathed.
“From the first night I walked into this house, you treated me with respect.”
“You never raised your voice.”
“When my hands shook on the tea tray, you looked away so I wouldn't feel ashamed.”
She opened her eyes, gazing directly into his soul.
“I was terrified of leaving.”
“I left because I thought Daniel Mercer would kill you if I stayed.”
Adrien’s hand cupped the back of her neck, his long fingers tangling in her soft hair.
“Nobody kills me, Isabella,” he whispered.
“Especially not when I have you to come home to.”
He leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.
The kiss was slow, tender, and filled with two years of unspoken longing.
Isabella sighed into his mouth, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders.
May you like
All the cold, all the terror, all the loneliness of the past dissolved into the warmth of his embrace.
Outside the tall arched windows, the winter storm gave way to clear, brilliant sunshine.
