A noise startles me awake. Opening my eyes I see that I’m lying in bed. Looking around I see Jasmine mumbling to herself as she stands by the open door to the bathroom. Suddenly everything comes rushing back, Gabriela and I had been drinking Margaritas after I had been in the computer room with Celmund, listening to Alexei’s thoughts. At first, I was surprised as I had never been able to hear anyone’s thoughts like that before, but as their conversation continued I forgot all about the surprise and concentrated more on what Alexei was thinking.
I hadn’t had a chance to tell Brandr about what I had learned, a tear streaks down my cheek as I remember Brandr’s face when I confessed what had happened to me. I can blame my confession on the Margaritas, but I have wanted to tell Brandr for so long that the drinks just helped me with courage.
The fear of him looking at me differently has always stopped me before. Now remembering the look of rage on his face, the emotions in his eyes when I told him makes me want to bury my head in the pillows and never come out.
After carrying me to our room, he placed me on our bed, stretching out next to me while he held me against his chest while I cried myself to sleep. Never once saying a word, every now and again he would kiss my hair or my forehead always stroking my hair or my back. I must have fallen asleep because now that I’m awake Jasmine is in our room and I know that Brandr isn’t.
I must have made a noise because Jasmine turns towards me, a hand stroking her extended belly and the other rubbing her back. “You’re finally awake,” she says quietly as she wobbles towards the bed.
“How long have I been asleep?” my voice is raspy from all the crying I had done and the emotions still choking me.
“A few hours. Gabriela was here with me, but she had to go and start lunch.” She pushes a few strands of my hair back away from my face.
“Where is he?” I ask the question that has been burning in my mind since the moment I woke up. I see Jasmine shake her head slightly as she looks away, but then she looks back at me with a sad look in her eyes.
“I don’t know, all I know is that Brandr sent Bjarni a message this morning asking if Gabriela could sit with you. Wulf and I were already up as I couldn’t sleep with this little one kicking all the time. Therefore, I offered to join her. Brandr didn’t say a word, Burkhart was arguing with him, but your man seemed as if he wasn’t even hearing him. All I know is that all of them got on their bikes and left, the only ones left behind are Bion and the prospect,” Jasmine explains. She sits on the bed with her back against the headboard lifting her legs.
“Why was Burkhart arguing with him?” From what I had seen these last few weeks Burkhart and Brandr were tight, if Burkhart was upset there must be a reason.
“I think your man went out for revenge, all I heard was Burkhart telling him to think before he acted, but from what I saw there was no stopping him.” Revenge? How could he go out for revenge if he didn’t know who it was?
“Why didn’t Draco stop him? Surely if he was going into danger Draco would have stopped him.”
“Girl, one thing you need to know about our men is that it’s very hard to stop them when they have their minds set on something. Also, you are family, they are all furious at what happened to you. Even if they could I don’t think that they wanted to stop him, because they all want a piece of whoever hurt you.” Jasmine wipes a tear from my cheek. “Enough about them, how about you? What can I do for you?”
She is looking at me with sadness in her eyes, “Thank you, but I’m fine. I just don’t know what to do now. I didn’t want to hurt Brandr, I know he blames himself about what happened to me and now it’s going to be worse.” I don’t want Brandr to be with me because of a sense of responsibility; I want him to care for me, but, how can he? Especially now that he knows what was done to me.
“What do you mean you don’t know what to do, do about what?” Jasmine ask quietly
“I can’t stay here; Brandr won’t want me now that he knows how I was touched.” My words are stilted with the emotions clogging my throat. I try to hold in my despair but the thought of never seeing Brandr again, of never having him touch me again fills me with such anguish.
“Oh Honey, don’t think like that. Brandr would never push you away because of something that was done to you against your will. You are his woman now, nothing can change that. Look at me …” After a few seconds I look up at her. “I see the way that man looks at you, the way he has been worried about you since the moment they found you. Your man cares about you, and this won’t change that.”
My heart fills with hope, maybe; somehow Brandr will be able to overlook what happened to me. I pick up Jasmine’s hand and squeeze it gently, thanking her for her comfort.
“Come on Honey, let’s get you up,” she says, smiling at me as she moves to sit up. “Maybe, let’s get me up first,” she grumbles, without the support of the headboard she rolls slightly back against me. The irritation on her face lightens my mood. “I swear if that man wants any more kids he can have them himself.” She moans, I take pity on her and give her a slight push to get her going.
After a quick shower, while Jasmine waits for me, we make our way towards the kitchen. Just as we enter we hear a bash; Jasmine and I stop in fright and then Gabriela curses. Looking over at where she’s standing I see a pot on the floor with sauce all over the ground.
“Are you okay?” I ask rushing towards her as I see her bend over and cry out in pain. As I approach I notice that Gabriela is wearing a pair of jean shorts and that the sauce has dropped down one of her legs obviously burning her.
“Damn, it’s flipping burning.” Before I can think about what I’m doing I rush over to the sink filling a pitcher that’s in the sink with cold water. I throw it on her leg.
“What …” Gabriela shrieks, jumping back as the water lands on her.
“Bion!” I hear Jasmine shouting, a minute later Bion rushes into the kitchen only wearing a pair of boxers and a gun held in one hand.
“What’s wrong?” he growls going straight to Jasmine, he places a hand on her back looking at her in concern.
“Not me, her,” Jasmine replies pushing him towards us.
“What the hell happened here?” he gasps looking around until he sees Gabriela bent over holding her leg. “Are you okay Sweetheart?” He rushes towards her, taking her hands away to see the damage. I can see the whole side of her leg is an angry red. Her face is scrunched in pain; tears streaking down her cheeks.
“Fuck, how did you get burnt?” he asks as he lifts her against his chest making his way out of the kitchen, Jasmine and I rush behind them as he takes her to the infirmary. Gabriela explains how the pot slipped out of her hands when she picked it up, and how I threw cold water on her.
Bion starts to clean away the excess sauce when Gabriela’s phone starts to ring. I see her reach over behind her and pull it out of her shorts pocket. “You’d better answer him. You know that he will just keep on calling,” Bion states. Picking up a tube of gel he starts to spread it over her burns.
“Jasmine, please answer,” Gabriela asks, as she passes her phone over to Jasmine who is standing next to me at the bottom of the Infirmary bed.
“Hello,” Jasmine answers.
I can hear a pause on the line before Bjarni asks why Jasmine is answering the phone. When she explains the situation to him I hear him swear. After a few words Bjarni requests that Jasmine should give him and Gabriella facetime. She grumbles to herself while she fiddles with the phone before she turns it around to face Gabriela.
“Baby Girl, what the fuck did you do to yourself?” Bjarni’s growls. “I don’t want you in that fucking kitchen anymore.” I can hear him breathing heavily on the phone.
“I’m okay, it’s just a small burn don’t overreact,” she calls out, but ruins it with a grimace as Bion spreads the gel over her burns.
“Overreact is it? Jasmine please show me her burns.” I hear Gabriela groan as Jasmine moves around to show Bjarni her leg where Bion is spreading the gel.
“Fuck!” he growls. “I’m coming Baby Girl, Bion how bad is it?” Bjarni asks as I hear him walking while he talks. Jasmine points the phone towards Bion. “Motherfucker, why haven’t you got any clothes on?” Bjarni roars before Bion can answer him.
Bion groans and then shakes his head. “Just get here, asshole,” he answers, not stopping what he’s doing. Jasmine passes the phone back to Gabriela after Bjarni disconnects the call.
“I’m sorry Bion, I didn’t think,” Jasmine says a frown marring her forehead.
“It’s okay Sweetheart I will just make sure I am scarce, you three can explain to him that I had to get out of the shower to come and help. Like that he will have time to calm down before he sees me,” he jokes, helping Gabriela to sit up when he finished.
“Bion it’s okay if you always come to our rescue wearing just what you have on right now, we will have your back,” Gabriela teases, but then grimaces as she moves her leg. I must say I agree with her, he is hot with rippling muscles and a tight ass that calls for attention.
“We promise not to say anything if you don’t,” I add, looking at him innocently, making Gabriela and Jasmine laugh.
“You three are dangerous, you carry on talking like that and you will get me killed,” he groans, but I can see a twinkle in his eye as he picks Gabriela up against his chest. “Where would you like me to take you Sweetheart?”
“I haven’t finished making lunch, and the kitchen needs to be cleaned. I made such a mess,” she states anxiously.
“Don’t worry about that I will clean everything up and finish lunch. After all I was the one trying to drown you,” I joke.
“I will come with you. Gabriela why don’t you go lie down for a bit?” Jasmine suggests as we prepare to leave.
“I’m fine; it just burns a bit. I will sit and keep you company until the men arrive. I would rather be there when Bjarni gets here than laying down. He will go into a total meltdown if he sees me in bed,” she quips playfully.
I insist that Jasmine sit with Gabriela while I clean the mess in the kitchen. The three of us are still sitting together an hour later when we hear the men arrive.