J.R. Ward the Black Dagger Brotherhood Novels 5-8 - J. R. Ward [138]
“So because I saved a kid of warrior blood, word got out, and my brother Darius ended up finding me and introducing me to Wrath. D…D and I had a certain connection, and he was probably the only one who could have gotten my attention at that point. When I met Wrath, he wasn’t into being king, and he was no more interested in ties than I was. Which meant the two of us clicked. Eventually I was inducted into the Brotherhood. And there…shit, yeah, there you have it.”
In the silence that followed he could only guess what was going through her mind, and the idea that she pitied him made him want to do something to prove he was strong.
Like bench-press a car.
Except instead of going all soft on him and making him feel even more rattled, Jane just looked around, even though he knew she could see nothing but the two candles that were lit. “And this place…this place means what to you?”
“Nothing. Means nothing more than any other.”
“Then why are we here?”
V’s heart rate spiked.
Shit… Standing here with her now, after spilling his guts, he wasn’t sure he could go through with what he’d planned.
Chapter Twenty-nine
As Jane waited for V to speak, she wanted to wrap her arms around him. She wanted to throw a whole lot of very sincere, ultimately lame words at him. She wanted to know whether his father had died and in what way. She hoped the bastard had gone badly and with pain.
When the silence continued, she said, “I don’t know if this will help…probably won’t, but I have to say something here. I can’t stomach oatmeal. To this day, it makes me sick.” She prayed she wasn’t going to say the wrong thing. “It is okay that you’re still struggling with everything that was done to you. Anyone would. It doesn’t make you weak. You were violently maimed by someone who should have protected and nurtured you. The fact that you’re still standing is a miracle. I respect you for it.”
V’s cheeks went pink. “I, ah…don’t really see it that way.”
“Fine. But I do.” To give him a break, she cleared her throat and said, “You going to tell me why we’re here?”
He rubbed his face like he was trying to clear his brain. “Shit, I want to be with you. Here.”
She exhaled in relief and sadness. She wanted a good-bye with him, also. A good-bye that was sexual and private and not in the bedroom they’d been locked in together. “I want to be with you, too.”
Another candle came to life over by a bank of curtains. Then a fourth by a wet bar. A fifth next to a big bed with black satin sheets on it.
She started to smile…until the sixth one lit up. There was something hanging off the wall…something that looked like…chains?
More candles flared. Masks. Whips. Canes. Gags.
A black table with restraints that hung down to the floor.
She wrapped her arms around herself, chilled. “So this is where you do the tying-up.”
“Yeah.”
Oh, Jesus… She didn’t want that kind of good-bye. Trying to stay calm, she said, “You know, it makes sense, given what happened to you. That you’d like that.” Shit, she couldn’t handle this. “So…is it men or women? Or, like, a combination?”
She heard the creaking of leather and turned back to him. He was taking off his jacket, and a set of guns she hadn’t seen were next. Followed by two black knives that had been hidden as well. Christ, he’d been totally armed.
Jane tightened the hold on herself. She wanted to be with him, but not tied down and masked while he pulled a 9½ Weeks on her head and whipped the shit out of her body. “Listen, V, I don’t think—”
He took his shirt off, his back muscles flexing up his spine, his pecs pumping fully, then settling. He kicked off his boots.
Holy…shit, she thought, as it dawned on her what this was really about.
His socks and his leathers