50
A Tower of Confessions
The second this was said, Sophia hissed in panic, only it was nothing to do with the bombshell just dropped.
“Shit, my brother is awake, everyone out!” Everyone stood up, including me making Sophia turn to me as Pip and Pythia started running for the exit.
“Not you, you’re supposed to be here remember, now pick a book and start reading,” Sophia ordered before giving me a quick kiss on the cheek and following the others out the door. Then, not knowing how much time I had, I ran to the nearest shelf, grabbed any book and then sat back down to pretend to read it.
The flaw in this plan however, was what I had picked up to read and now having no time to change it as Draven was stalking through the door wearing nothing but a pair of checked flannel lounge pants. His massive chest and huge shoulders were on show making me lick my dry lips at the sight of all that raw untamed muscle.
“I have to say sweetheart, not a fan of waking up to find my wife missing from our bed,” he said once he was close enough that he was now stood at the back of my chair and was reaching over to take hold of my chin to tilt my head, so he could have my eyes.
“I left you a note,” I said gently making him raise an eyebrow down at me. Then he leaned closer to me, bending at the waist so he could whisper seductively in my ear,
“But I can’t make love to a note.” I shuddered after he said this as his hand slipped down to my neck and collared it with his large hand making my insides turn to mush. Then he kissed the top of my head and I could feel him smiling his victory at getting the reaction he wanted.
“What’s that your reading?” he then asked, taking me off guard. In my panicked moment I tried to hide the book and said,
“Oh, it’s nothing, anyway we should get back to bed.” Then I tried to stuff the book down the side of me, doing so the wrong way so that he could still see the spine. Damn it! I wanted to smack my forehead when he reached down, grabbed it before I could stop him and then read out the title much to my horror,
“Male Reproductive System: Clinical and Physiology.” My only response was to groan out loud making him chuckle,
“Some light reading, sweetheart?” he teased. I grabbed the book back off him and threw it down on the coffee table in front of us.
“Ha, ha, no I was just…well, I wanted to…to check something,” I said hoping this was enough to stop him questioning me on it. But then again, this was Draven we were talking about, so of course he would say something.
“I think we know that it all works, sweetheart,” he said pulling me from my chair and tugging me back against him so that he could frame my belly with his hands, as now his arms were around me from behind.
“Yes, and congratulations for that, you must be so proud,” I teased back making him laugh.
“I am indeed, but just to make sure to further your education on the matter, I think it best to give you a refresher course in the male anatomy, giving special attention to the important parts first, just to be sure.” At this I laughed giving him a nudge with my elbow and saying,
“Smooth.”
“If you want smooth sweetheart, you might have to go digging to find it,” he said turning me round to face him before looking down at the evidence that proved there was indeed something smooth down there, but it also came in the form of something very, very hard. Oh, and definitely something that needed exploring in further detail.
He picked up my discarded throw, one I had forgotten about as we had been sat next to the fire. Then he swung it out around my shoulders, catching the other side before pulling it closer around me.
“Come with me,” he said in that velvet voice of his that would have me doing anything he asked. He took my hand in his and led me from the room making me look back at the space and silently saying goodbye to the turbulent night.
At first, I thought Draven was just going to take us back to our room, but when he he took a different door, one away from the stairs leading to our room, I knew he obviously had other thoughts.
“Uh, shouldn’t we be…whoa!” I ended my sentence on a squeal as suddenly Draven lifted me up into his arms and continued on without answering me. We passed long hallways filled with yet even more scenes of battles and wars both painted and depicted on tapestries hung high, closer to the moulded ceilings. I wanted to make a comment but one look at Draven and I could tell his thoughts were solely on two things, his destination and how quickly he could get me there. Which prompted me to ask,
“Where are you taking me?” I questioned as he started to walk through a section of the castle I knew was leading us to one of the four towers and a place I hadn’t been yet. However, yet again he remained silent through this whole time with only a squeeze of my leg every now and again. This for Draven was a tell-tale sign that he was on sexual edge and to be honest by the time he made it up the last of the spiral stairs and came to a door, then I was on that edge too.
He released my legs, letting them swing down before lowering the rest of me down the front of his hard body. But the second my face became level with his, he crushed his lips to mine in a passionate kiss. His hand cupped my cheek before embedding his fingers in my hair as if he was desperate to keep me locked to him. His lips moulded to mine as his tongue searched out my taste like a man starved of food. Then, when my need to breathe became too much, he lowered me the rest of the way to the floor, his kiss following until my body was steady and now standing.
This was when I realised we were outside a door I hadn’t seen before but reminded me of the solid wooden door he had once caged me up against on his rooftop. And cage me in was exactly what he did now as he pressed me against the wooden panels that were all framed by a raised piece of wood and studded all the way round with iron rivets.
His hands flattened above me either side, showcasing his greater height and making me feel even smaller because of it. He lowered his head making some of his hair come forward and I slowly reached out to push some of the soft strands back, making his eyes flash purple, glowing at my tender touch.
“What’s behind this door, Draven?” I whispered the question making one side of his lips raise up and making me swallow hard at his bad boy grin that spoke of only carnal things to come.
I knew this for a certainty when he answered me.
“A place I promised would be in your future should you not behave.” Then I watched as his left hand fell down the wood, skimming it with his fingertips slowly, before what I first thought was reaching for the handle that was next to my waist. But his hand lowered further until he reached inside his pocket and pulled out a key that had the elaborate end entwined in a purple ribbon.
I didn’t know why, but if I were to venture a guess, I would say it looked to have been done on purpose as a reminder to himself that one day he would be using it. A day that, when he did, he would have me right here, up against the door like he did now, in this very moment.
He raised the key to the lock and the loud click as it slid into place echoed in my heart, making it thud in anticipation.
Then he simply opened the door and I stepped further into him so I didn’t fall, seeing as I was still leaning all my weight against it. This was when he straightened up and turned me round with his hands on my shoulders, with the key still in hand. Then he walked me forward into the room. The second I took one look inside I gasped walking further in, this time by myself before turning around to face him.
“This…this is…” I didn’t know what to say at first as it seemed impossible…could it have been true, all this time?
“You didn’t lie…all this time and you weren’t lying,” I said finally getting my words out and seeing for myself the near insane level in which Draven, through his love for me, was willing to go to keep me safe. He didn’t say anything to this, but he just stood in the doorway with his arms folded as he watched it all dawn on me.
“This is your tower, isn’t it? The one you always threatened me with…all this time and I thought you were only joking,” I said in freaked out awe as I looked around the room, one that had obviously been decorated with only me in mind. I knew this because, as insane as it sounded, it looked so similar to my room back at Libby’s.
The colours used on the bedsheets were shades of purples with large black velvet flowers covering a middle section of it. Even the bed wasn’t the usual masculine wooden four poster I was used to seeing. But instead a black wrought iron one with four spindles and a feminine pattern of swirls in between.
The circular room had stone walls and the bed dominated the centre of the room, whilst other sections of the space had been separated by partitioning walls to create what I knew was probably a bathroom, and a small walk in closest, as the whole tower room was certainly large enough. I was even amazed to find a desk and easel sat near a window looking out to the amazing view of the mountains, and a perfect place for a painter to lose herself in her art.
He had thought of everything, including books he knew I liked, a picture of my family in a frame and candles that were dotted around the room, as if this was a must for any girl’s room.
“How long have you had this room like this, Draven?” I asked in a thoughtful tone as the seriousness of this had started to seep in. He took a few deep breaths, still with his arms folded across his chest as if he didn’t want to answer me but, in the end had no choice.
“Since I first met you,” he said making me swallow hard at the implications of that sentence and what it meant.
“But this room…it’s…”
“I carried you back that day,” he said interrupting me and obviously now knowing he needed to get this out before he thought better of it. I frowned in question and shook my head slightly before telling him,
“I don’t understand.”
“When I met you in the woods I knew nothing about you, other than you were the most beautiful creature I had ever beheld… but that wasn’t enough,” he told me shocking me, but it didn’t stop there.
“I needed to know you. Needed to see who you were when I wasn’t around, so I watched you.” He continued speaking now as he lowered his arms, so he could close the door behind him.
“I remembered that day, laying you down on the sofa in case you woke sooner than expected. Even then your mind wasn’t easy to control. I would try and get a read on your thoughts, being arrogant enough to think I was entitled to them.” I frowned at him, about to disagree when he did it for me, in a sense.
“You were mine you see, the very second I saw you that was it, your fate was sealed along with mine…the only difference was that you just didn’t know it yet.”
“And this room?” I asked jumping slightly when he slammed it shut before pausing against it, looking down at the lock with his bare back still facing me. I could see the way his shoulders bunched as he tensed at my question.
“I wanted to make it comfortable for you, so I went in search of where you spent your time and had it memorised. Of course, I added to it the more your personality came through during your first months at Evergreen Falls, like the art supplies, clothes, books, that type of thing,” he said still unable to look at me, so I asked again.
“Draven, what was this room going to be used for?” My voice this time was getting harder to keep steady as I started to worry that I already knew the answer to that question. He confirmed this when I heard the click of the key turning, locking us in.
“It was to be your home,” he said, finally turning to look at me, as if he could no longer stand it, he had to see the effect his words had on me and what he saw was utter shock.
“No…no you…you can’t be serious,” I said denying it for him and shaking my head as if it would rid me from the thought.
“Back then I only had one thought, make it safe, then make you mine,” he said, this time sounding far less ashamed than he should have.
“And if I didn’t want to do as I was told?” I snapped but he merely shrugged his shoulders and motioned to the room.
“Like I said, your new home.”
“You mean prison!” I corrected, this time making him wince.
“I didn’t care if I had to spend the next hundred years making you fall in love with me Keira, so long as I did this knowing you were safe and none of my enemies could get to you,” he told me making me bite my lip as I digested his words.
“Think back to when you travelled through time, Keira…what happened?” I frowned not understanding where he was going with this. So, I shook my head and started to tell him,
“I don’t see what that has to…”
“Please, just try and answer the question…what happened when we met in the past?” he questioned more clearly this time. So, I did as he asked and thought about it before telling him,
“I met you in the great hall, I caused a bit of a scene, you saw it and then came over to me,” I told him starting at the beginning still not seeing where he was going with this.
“Then what happened?”
“You got mad, held a blade to my throat and asked me questions,” I replied with a frown, wanting to point out that back in the past, he didn’t exactly try to woo me.
“Did I hurt you, even though you struck a royal Satrap, something punishable by death or at the very least a severed hand?” I swallowed hard looking down at both my hands very much intact and uttered a small,
“No.”
“Then what did I do?” he asked again, more calmly this time.
“You asked my name and…” I paused thinking back and remembering the way he had been so careful with his blade. How it had been more for show than anything else. Then, when I couldn’t answer his questions to his liking, he was about to have the guards take me to his chamber when Ranka intervened. Okay, so I was now starting to see where he was going with this.
“And?” he pressed.
“And you ordered to have me taken away, but in the end…”
“In the end you found yourself in my Harem,” he finished off for me, then going on to ask one more thing,
“Now for my next question, whilst you were in my care at any point did I let you go free?” I bit my lip, took a breath through the small gap I allowed between my lips, before shaking my head telling him no.
“No, I did not. Which, therefore, as much as both you and I hate to admit it, you were in fact my prisoner and one I kept close watch over.”
“You weren’t there, Draven,” I told him softly making him laugh once only without humour.
“I may not have been there Sweetheart, but I know myself very well. You may add two thousand years between the two points and with that add a very a different society at the end of one… one I find myself living in today, but that doesn’t mean anything if it gets in the way of what I want, and I wanted you,” he said with purpose and a tone that I was left to do nothing but believe him. He took a deep breath and told me,
“Look at this any way you want Keira, but I know myself and I know even without being there, how I first enforced my rule over you, long before I tried to make you fall in love with me.” So basically, he was saying that no matter how much time could have passed between us, his decisions would have still been the same.
But in the end, they hadn’t been. Which now brought on the all-important question,
Why?
“Then why didn’t you, Draven? Why didn’t I just end up here right after we met?” I asked needing this and needing to know what would have happened had he followed through with his plan. Could I really have fallen in love with my captor, after experiencing it so horrendously with another? I couldn’t say either way for sure as I had already been in love with Draven when going to the past. But what would have happened had I not been?
I had no answers because the fact remained I was now faced with the man I loved so deeply it felt like he was ingrained in my soul, branded to it no matter what happened. It had always been that way. But what if Draven had showed me a different side of him to start, would it have ended differently?
“Why didn’t you just take me, Draven?” I asked again and in those few seconds of silence between us as I waited, it seemed like a lifetime until he replied with a firm truth,
“Because I fell in love with you first.” Hearing this made me swallow hard and this ended up being my only reaction because I couldn’t find the words. But thankfully I didn’t need to as he wasn’t finished.
“I fell in love with what I saw every day. The way you reacted to those around you, the way you would laugh with your friends or the kindness you showed my sister. The serene look on your face when you would listen to your music whilst taking a walk and the way you always slept peacefully after reading a book…by the Gods even the way you drove your car so cautiously, checking nothing was coming the other way about five times before taking the chance to pull out,” he said on a laugh and then paused, as if he was seeing it all there again. Seeing all those times, right in front of him, like he too had just spent time in the witness circle, asking of it, all he wished to see were memories of me.
“Even those shy looks you would grant me when you thought I didn’t know that you were looking. The way you would fiddle with your hair nervously or that damn lip of yours would drive me to distraction! You just had no clue as to what you did to me. I would find myself willing you to trip, letting your clumsiness get the better of you, just so that you would fall into my arms and I would finally have the excuse I needed to touch you,” he told me rubbing the back of his neck as if he remembered the frustration as if it was yesterday.
“But yet no matter how much I wanted to take it, to have it all and make it mine, I knew I couldn’t do that to you, or in the end, to me.”
“What do you mean?” I asked in a quiet, soft tone, telling him without words my anger was all gone.
“What I mean is that all of these day to day things made me fall even more and more in love with you each time and in the end, I couldn’t take that from you, just as much as I couldn’t take it from myself…I couldn’t risk dousing water on the flames of your soul, one that would light me up within at just the sight of you.”
“Oh, Draven.” This was all I managed to utter as the tears came and heavy droplets fell down my face. But then I watched as he let the key drop, falling until the ribbon untangled so that it was dangling down from his hand.
“But now, well now I finally get to live out one of my fantasies and thanks to what you said to me today, you unknowingly gave me the green light I needed,” he told me, making me replace my loving look of adoration to one of confusion and wariness. Now my mind had gone into overload trying to recall all that I had said to him, but it kept coming up blank. What had I said to make him want to show me this now…? What could I possibly…? and that’s when it hit me, and he knew it too when I saw him grin.
His words today had been the start, when he told me, ‘I swear that tower is looking ever closer to playing an integral part of your future darling’. And me thinking this an open threat as always, said in return,
‘Only if you’re there with me and we both throw away the key.’
And that key was now one that he lifted up, opening the pieces of ribbon so that he could place it around his neck, leaving it to hang there as a symbol of his ownership. A sign that he was master in this room and I was his captive.
I knew this
“I am not throwing away the key, Keira…” he told me as he started to take long strides towards me until he was towering above me, so now he could place a single finger to my chin, to tilt my head up to look at him.
“But I am keeping it right here…” he said pointing to his heart where its length reached, as if in some symbolic meaning, making me too the keeper of his heart.
Then he issued a promise, growling down at me one last rule,
“Firmly locked…until I am done with you.”