upstairs.” Mason’s orders. I looked down at my empty hands. I’d thrown a few things in a suitcase before we left Chicago. At this second, I wasn’t even certain where it was. There was nothing urging me upward.
Our room.
A room Lorna and I had shared.
A bed we’d shared.
An empty room.
An empty bed.
Voices came from the kitchen like a safety net pulling me away from my fear and sadness.
I could enter the kitchen and find Madeline, Laurel, and Patrick. Instead, I turned as Mason and Sparrow entered from the porch.
“Have you been upstairs?” Mason asked.
I shook my head. “When they bring in my stuff, just have them put it in the room—the one where I stayed before. I don’t need to get settled. I need to find Lorna and Araneae.”
Sparrow’s dark gaze met mine before he walked past us to the kitchen.
“Is he okay?” I asked Mason.
“No. None of us are.” He motioned toward the living room and beyond with his chin. “Come with me to the office.”
Lorna
The tower - nine years ago
Lying back on the pillow, I looked up into Reid’s eyes, staring into their depths. Emotions like cyclones swirled in the deepest brown I’d ever seen. “You’re worried,” I said as he teased a stray strand of my red hair away from my face.
His head shook as he feigned a smile. “You’re so damn beautiful.”
My fingertips roamed over his chestnut skin, feeling his bare shoulders, muscular back, and firm ass. Each indentation, each tightening muscle was a story written in Braille, a masterpiece I wanted to read over and over until I knew every chapter, line, and word by heart.
“Back at you,” I purred, holding him tighter as we lay melded together, my body still reveling in the aftershocks of our stolen moment.
Our time together wouldn’t last. It never did, yet in the few weeks we’d been together, I’d become addicted to his touch and the way he could orchestrate not only my body but my mind. When we were together, I believed in the fairy tale I’d been sold as a child. In his arms, my thoughts filled with possibilities for a future I’d never before dared to consider.
Never before had there been a man who so fully consumed my being. It wasn’t that Reid took, but that in giving, he created a desire within me to give in return. Never had I been loved so thoroughly, not only physically—something he did beyond my wildest imagination—but emotionally too. Without knowing all of my past, in this short time Reid had shown me what a real man could be.
Of course, I had my brother, but beyond that, my examples of men were poor at best and more often horrible. The only thing the men my mother had attracted taught me was to never trust, depend upon, or give my love to a man. And yet Reid Murray was nothing like those men of my childhood. He had not only the honor of my brother, but more—more patience and compassion melted together by his burning desire.
In these few weeks, I’d fallen for him in a way I never dreamed possible.
Yet, as life intervened, time together was limited.
Despite—or maybe because of—the dangers that Reid, Patrick, Mr. Sparrow, and my brother all claimed were knocking at our door, any time that Reid and I could spend together was precious.
Reid shifted his weight until we were no longer joined as one. Turning on his side, he lay opposite me, nose to nose. His large hands cupped my cheeks as he brought our lips together.
A moan escaped my lips as his tongue sought entrance. Willingly I opened, welcoming the connection and tasting my own essence. It brought back the memory of how he’d brought me to ecstasy before we’d joined together to find a higher cliff. My breasts pushed against his solid chest as my nipples again tightened.
As he pulled away, a cold chill covered my flesh and I again asked, “What has you so worried?”
“I didn’t say I was.”
I lifted my head, my pulse running faster as I grew terrified of the answer to the question I was about to pose. “Is it about us? About me?”
Taking a deep breath, Reid sat up, moving his long legs over the edge of the bed. Propping my head on my hand with my elbow on the mattress, I relished the view. While Reid may not have the muscle bulk of Mason, muscle was all he was. There wasn’t an ounce of fat as his torso