He continues his strokes on my hair. “It’s been accumulating for a while. Not only does Queens threaten you, but she’s also been provoking you.”
“You think I hit her because of that?”
“Yes. You don’t attack people without any reason. You only go after those who provoke or pose a threat to you.”
“How do you know that?”
He clutches my arm and pulls me closer to him. I stop rocking as he manoeuvres me to straddle his lap. “It’s a theory.”
I peek at him through my blurry vision. “Have you been psychoanalysing me or something?”
“Maybe.” He continues drying my hair. “You don’t need to worry about Queens anymore. She knows her place now and won’t provoke you again.”
“Why?”
“I made her.”
“You made her how?”
“By less violent methods?” He grins, and I wince.
He places a finger under my chin and lifts so I’m facing him. “You don’t have to be ashamed of who you are with me, Elsa. You can be a fucking lunatic, and I still won’t let you go.”
Wow. That’s surprisingly sweet coming from him.
It’s almost like he accepts me whole. Aiden isn’t interested in mere parts of me, he wants the whole thing.
And my heart nearly bursts open at his acceptance.
It’s like I’ve been waiting my entire life for someone to take me as I am and I finally found him.
He sees me.
And he’s not scared of what he sees.
Hell, I’m more terrified than him.
My teary eyes search his cloudy ones for any sign of manipulation, but all I find is acceptance.
Unconditional acceptance.
He shouldn’t accept this part of me. I don’t accept it myself.
“You shouldn’t joke about that,” I whisper.
“It wasn’t a joke. I don’t care who or what you are as long as you’re mine.”
My lower lip trembles and the hysterics’ wave from earlier threatens to hit me all over again. “What if… what if I hurt someone?”
“Why would you think that?”
“I keep having these nightmares about pools of blood. A normal person wouldn’t have those nightmares. I m-must’ve hurt someone before… right?”
“It could be that you were the one who got hurt.”
I pull back. He pauses drying my hair.
“You know, don’t you?” I choke on the words.