The Secret Wallflower Society - Jillian Eaton Page 0,106

on top of her head, and his thighs cradled her bottom as he held her snug against his chest. “I’ll return you home as soon as it’s safe to do so.”

“And when will that be?”

I could spend forever like this, Percy decided as she curled her fingers around the arms that bound her to him. Secure and protected with the man she loved. And even as ridiculous and improbable as it was, she did love Lucas.

She loved the tenderness he’d shown her.

She loved the confidence he’d instilled in her.

She loved the passion he’d awoken inside of her.

Calliope and Helena had healed her physical wounds. They’d washed her cuts and put cold compresses on her bruises and wiped away her tears. But it had taken Lucas to make her realize that not all trauma was visible to the naked eye. Whether he realized it or not, he’d helped her confront her demons.

She hadn’t vanquished all of her doubts and insecurities. Not yet. Maybe she never would. But she’d dragged them out into the light, and no matter what came, she would never let them slither back into the darkness again. Because Lucas was right. She had control over Andrew now. It was up to her to decide if he could infiltrate her thoughts or dwell in her nightmares.

And she chose to banish him.

From her past, from her present, from her future.

Now that she knew what it was like to be treasured for who she was, not what she looked like or how obediently she could behave, she understood that whatever Andrew had felt towards her, it was never love. It was never compassion. It was never devotion.

It was never her fault.

The things he’d done to her…she had never deserved them. Not a single cruel word. Not a single vicious slap. That–that maliciousness, that hate, belonged solely to her husband. And all that ugliness could fester inside of him until he rotted, for all she cared.

She had married a duke…and fallen in love with a devil. And even though she couldn’t keep Lucas, even though she couldn’t keep this, she was grateful for it.

She was grateful for every second of it.

“Soon,” Lucas told her, his breath warming the back of her neck as he swept her hair to the side and pressed his lips to the top of her vertebrae. “You’ll be with your friends soon, love. Until then…”

“Until then?” she murmured as he began to kiss his way down her spine.

“Until then, you’re stuck with me,” he said huskily.

Percy didn’t protest when he turned her around. She pressed her mouth to his willingly, and as that familiar heat burned in her belly, she could have wept from the joy it brought her. Except she was done crying. Sometime during the past few days, she’d made the decision that she would not shed another tear because of Andrew.

Any tears she cried from this moment forward were for her and her alone.

Her fingers combed through Lucas’s thick, glossy locks as he deepened the kiss, his tongue sliding boldly between her lips. He braced a hand on the window behind her as the intensity between them increased, rising to a fever pitch of desperate desire before it suddenly softened and turned soothing, like the caress of a cool breeze on a hot summer night.

On a sigh, she turned herself over to him completely, her head rolling onto her shoulder as he traced a path down the side of her neck, nibbling along the curved line of her collarbone. Then he kissed her again, and it wasn’t frantic or demanding, but gentle and smooth. She felt a liquid pull from between her thighs as he lingered for a small eternity over her lips, and when at long last their embrace ended and he drew back, it was all Percy could do not to slide into a boneless heap on the floor at his feet.

“I’ve got an errand to run,” he said, those gold eyes unreadable as he brushed a curl off her temple. “I won’t lie to you, it involves Glastonbury.”

Lucas might as well have dumped a bucket of freezing water over her head. Flinching, she brought her arms in close to her body as if they were a shield, as all the heat within her was replaced with a brittle, freezing rain.

“Are you going to see him? But why?” she said, dismayed when Lucas gave a clipped nod.

“I’ve things to settle, love.”

Things to settle…

“You mean me.” Her nails dug into the soft skin underneath