But Noelle is a threat to everything I believe is true. She’s a mirror showing me a reflection I can’t bear. She’s the balm that can soothe my soul, but I’m the venom that will be her undoing.
I tug her body up, circling her in my arms and pulling her tightly to me, wanting to lose myself in her warmth. I bury my face in her long dark hair and inhale her scent, imprinting it in my memory forever. “You can’t stay. We’ll destroy you. I’ll demolish your light and leave you a vacant shell. Run, Eve. Run because nothing good lies within our depths.”
Three Months Later
Chapter 28
Lorne
She didn’t return for our parents’ wedding. I thought she’d come back then, and I’d have her. But the day came, and as I searched the crowd for her long black hair, all my hopes vanished into smoke.
The first month Snow was gone, we wallowed in our misery and blamed Declan. Cas punished him, mostly. He got creative and started learning how to put intricate lash marks on his back with a flogger and a cane. Declan took it, both out of guilt and his own sick needs. I shut him out, wouldn’t talk to him, glance at him, or touch him. I couldn’t bear the sight of him.
Then I began hating myself for causing him pain. I realized I was adding to the fucked up shit in his head, and that was something I never wanted to do. That’s when my anger toward him was redirected into finding Snow.
Edward was useless. As much as I asked about her, he always kept his answers vague. One thing is for certain—the man might be ruthless, but he was pure mush for his little girl. She asked him to stay quiet, and he did it with no questions asked.
All I knew was she got into school in Paris. So I began searching, but there was no one by the name of Noelle White registered anywhere.
I’m at the tenth school and once again I’ve struck out. I flip the collar of my black coat and walk out of the registrar’s office into the chill. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I dial Cas’s number to inform him of another dead end, and that’s when she appears like a fucking prophecy. I end the call and light a cigarette as I stalk her like an animal watching its prey.
She’s a vision. Her head falls back in laughter at the person behind her. My blood runs cold as he flings his arm around her, and she puts her head on his shoulder.
Who the fuck is this guy, and why is he touching what’s mine?
I want to bend her over right here and fuck her for the world to see. To lay my claim and mark her so no other man will look at her. Then I want to cum all over that little fucker’s smug face so he knows who she belongs to.
I jog to her side of the courtyard, ensuring she doesn’t see me. They seem awfully chummy. She’s a little too comfortable with him. They pass down the busy sidewalks, so lost in what the other has to say that they barely realize there’s a world around them until they stop in front of a cathedral.
Snow swings her arms around him and places a kiss on his cheek before leaving him to enter the gothic building. The venom coursing in me at her lips on his cheek is so strong that I crush the cigarette in my hand, singeing my fingers with the embers before following her inside.
She’s already kneeling, hands clasped together, head bowed before an altar. Maybe this is what Declan sees in her—another sucker, just like him.
I grab another smoke and let it dangle from my mouth, not yet lighting it. Uncertain about what to do. I usually have a plan. There is a method to every move I make, but with Noelle, all the planning seems to go out the window. With her, everything I do is on impulse, and that can’t be trusted because all my instincts are screaming at me to bend her over and fuck her until she submits.
I approach her and sit in the pew directly behind her. My fingers itch to brush against her hair. My body is tense at having her so close after months of torture, and my cock throbs with the need to bury itself in paradise.
“Aren’t imaginary friends a little weird to have at your age?”
Chapter 29
Noelle
I jolt at his voice. A voice I’ve longed for the last few months. A voice I wished I’d never hear again. My emotions for the three men I left behind are turbulent: fear, anger, love, compassion, and hope, all colliding and fighting for domination.
“What are you doing here?”