Chapter 36
BRIANNA’S POV
My heavy eyelids fluttered open, my head throbbing with a dull ache. As my vision cleared, I found myself on my bed in my room which was fairly bright with the dipping rays of the sun pouring in from the open window.
Sebastian was standing by the bedside, his gaze intent on me. The moment our eyes met, he offered me a smile equal in warmth and brightness as the rays pouring in.
A slight wince escaped my lips as I cradled my head, trying to remember how I got here in such a state. The last thing I remembered was crashing into the table where a flower vase was and falling unconscious after Catherine had hit me on the side of my face with her crystal-studded purse, making the headache I was managing spiral out of control.
Fuck! I muttered with a raspy breath as I tried but unsuccessfully to sit up on the headboard of my bed. My muscles were so sore and tense from all the sleeping I could barely raise an arm.
“Wait,” Sebastian reached out in an instant and stocked a pile of pillows behind me for me to rest on. “You scared me there. Thank goodness you’re okay.”
He tried to take my arm with a gentle authority to help me. But I declined, even though it was obvious I needed the support.
“Come on, Brianna,” he breathed out. “Now isn’t the time to be stubborn. Let me help you.”
“Please, My King… Sebastian,” I insisted with a lie, trying not to meet his gaze, because if I did, I’ll end up regretting why I refused his help. “It’s nothing. It was just a headache. You can go now. I’m feeling much better.”
“Yes, it was just a headache,” he responded, his tone adding momentum. “The same headache that sent you crashing into a table. The same headache that had left you unconscious for the past six hours,” suddenly his sharp tone was reduced to a fragile, shaky one. A tone that seemed somewhat hurt… afraid. “The same headache that made me think I had lost you.”
I froze for a second, my blood congealing into blobs on hearing his last words. They lingered in me. Left my pulses racing. Left something implanted in me. But I mustered the strength to pull out and break through all that. All because of him, his crazy, possessive wife almost sent me to my early grave. Apparently, she thinks I’m sleeping with him. Which I wasn’t.
“Please, let me help you,” he tried taking my arm again and I suddenly and involuntarily flared.
“No!” I lifted my chin, meeting his gaze. “All these won’t be happening if you had just called your wife to order and made it clear to her that nothing was going on between the two of us. She hates me and keeps treating me like I’m some kind of threat that needs to be eliminated.”
There was a lethal calmness in his eyes as he stared at me. They were serenely compelling. Mysterious and unfathomable. I couldn’t tell if he was hurt by my words or not. I couldn’t understand his reaction. And that only made me regret every syllable I said.
Tears were already slipping down my cheeks. I placed my hand against my mouth to stop myself from breaking apart in his presence. But my emotions got the best of me. I wept aloud, rocking back and forth as my sobs cut through the silence in the room. I gasped loudly, fighting for air that was fast eluding me.
Seeing the storm of emotions that was raging inside of me, he lowered to my bed and tucked himself beside me to my greatest surprise. Slowly, he cradled my head and placed it on his chest.
I didn’t know why. But I felt my defences crumbling with him so close. I wanted to push him away. Tell him to leave. That was the right thing to do. But I didn’t know how. My body won’t move. And the words stuck up in my throat. Instead, I sought comfort and solace in the depth of his thick chest.
His intoxicating scent purified the air around me, making me regain my lost breaths. Involuntarily, I snaked my arms around him to his surprise. His thick form provided shelter. fortress. A pillar I could hold on to and not fall.
The heat his body radiated was soothing to my skin. It provided me with all the warmth I needed. The gentle rhythmic beating of his heart was therapeutic. Musical. Everything I wanted to hear. Even though I found it hard to admit, I wanted this comfort. His comfort. I wanted him to hold me tight and tell me I’ll be alright. Tell me everything will be alright. Tell me I won’t relive my past in this castle.
“Don’t worry,” he returned the gesture like I had wanted, curling his left hand around me and gently running the fingers of his right hand through my locks. “I’ll talk to Catherine. Everything will be alright. Please stop crying. It shatters me to see you like this.”
“You have been so nice to me. Treated me well like no one has in a long time. Treated like… like I’m not a slave. The last thing I want is to throw all that in the mud. If I’m not welcome here. If your wife doesn’t like me. Then please, just say the word and let me go. I don’t want to be the reason---”
“Shhh,” he shushed and chuckled softly, cutting me off. “You’re not going anywhere. I won’t let you go that easily. You’re welcome here. And Catherine will learn to like you when she sees the real you. So stop worrying about that. Now get some rest, the doctor said the headache was a result of stress and that you need enough bed rest.”
Startled by his last words, I glanced up at him.
“You called a doctor?”
“Yes I did,” he met my gaze.
Not knowing what to say, I laid back on his chest, my thoughts overtaking me as he continued running his fingers along my strands.
Was it that bad for him to call a doctor? Why does he care so much about me? What did I do to deserve all this?
At that auction, I had borne in mind all Alpha kings were nothing but devils in angel’s clothing. That they were nothing short of Hermes’s replicas. But Sebastian was making me rethink all that. He was different. Too different I could tell he was nothing like them. Can I put my full trust in him? Hope his kind gestures will last and he wasn’t using them as a cover-up for something sinister.
Pulling forward slightly, he draped the duvet over our bodies, making sure it covered our lower torso to our feet. He adjusted and tucked me closer to his form, now holding me with both hands and resting his chin on the top of my head as I took refuge on his chest.
But why was he doing that? Was he planning on staying longer or even greater, sleeping here tonight?
I wanted to ask him when my room door suddenly flung open and a familiar voice resonated, “What the fuck?!”