“Tobias,” I call out, as he tears into me, possessed by anger while giving into us.
He groans as he finally releases me, pushing my thighs wider as he drives in. He leans over, gripping my neck and lifting me, his grunts and exhales hitting my lips. Our mouths collide, his tongue diving deep as he kisses me and kisses me. I shudder around him, my core clenching as I moan my release into our kiss. My orgasm seems to unleash him as he fucks me deep, pinning my hands beside my head. Inching the table forward with each thrust. I take his brutal licks because it’s what he needs and what I want. His anger, his passion, the proof of life that still beats in his chest. His regret and resentment for the love I still harbor for both the man and the monster that dwells inside him.
It’s possession and reclaiming. It’s too much of everything he can’t get past and can’t forgive either of us for. Flickers of torment cross his features as pained grunts escape him.
“We are nothing,” his voice cracks with his lie.
“You love me,” I counter. “You still love me.”
He roars as he comes, forehead pressed to mine before spilling the rest of himself on the table between us. Chest heaving, he backs away, while jerking up his pants. The porch light blankets us in light as he retreats, his face going ashen as he gathers his jacket and the state I’m in—torn, bitten, and flushed from my orgasm. His face twists in anguish before he hangs his head at the threshold of the door.
I gather myself from the table. My limbs still shaking, but I manage to keep my voice steady. “It takes a queen to love and understand a king. Did you think this would break me? You made me!”
His silence is answer enough.
“You really thought that would do it? Would change what I feel for you and get me out of your system? You should know better than that, you fucking fool!” I wrap myself in the ruined silk.
He palms his mouth, frozen on the doorstep, unshed tears in his panic-filled eyes, a plea on his lips when he speaks. “Please leave, Cecelia. I can’t give you what you want.” Shadows of our undoing sneak in, casting darkness over his features, his eyes wild and haunted while an agony-filled groan escapes his throat. I see it then, the ironic truth, I might be strong enough, but he’s not. He turns and stalks out, leaving the door open.
The next morning, I pace the house, my core sore, throbbing, as I contemplate my next move. I know I have to go. I know what needs to be done. I’m trying to break through a door that’s long closed and sealed shut.
I will leave, for the both of us. I’m only hurting us by staying. I admit to myself I had hoped we could put it behind us, never Dominic, but all of the heartbreak and deception. We were torn apart before we had a chance to be. His unreasonable anger with me, I can’t fully understand. It was horrible circumstance that ruined us that night, and I now know that the easiest way for him is to blame our relationship as a whole and deny me for himself as penance. And I get to share in that punishment no matter how much I want just a measure of absolution.
In a haze, I find myself in my father’s room. When I lived here, I never, not once, was curious about his living quarters. It was just a part of the house I never dared enter aside from the night Tobias showed up injured. Entering his room now, I see the room of a stranger. The whole of it covered in floor to ceiling windows, offering a spectacular view of the mountains. His furniture is simple, elegant, dark mahogany, and void of much life. Aside from the fading smell of lemon polish, it remains untouched. Just the way he left it the day he died. I open his chest of drawers and lift some of his socks before pulling out one of his T-shirts. I’ve never known my father’s smell. He never hugged me, held me. Never. He wasn’t that man. That thought saddens me as I inhale the laundered shirt. And then it occurs to me.
Roman died without a single soul mourning him, not even his only daughter.
His cover-up of Dominic’s death had settled my fate with him. I never spoke to him again after that, and he rarely ever reached out.
And if I’m not careful, I might not have many who mourn me when my time comes.
But from what I knew, we were two different people who live and lived completely different lives. I’m still reeling from the fact Tobias swallowed his pride and met with him, told him he loved me, swore to keep me safe all the while protecting him, a man who covered up his parents’ deaths, accidental or not, and gave him money in return.
Tobias got the same consolation I did.
Money.
The most necessary of evils that can completely change a person for better or worse.