Born Mine
Chapter 63

I tried to compel Amy to stay with my eyes but she shot me an apologetic look and all but ran out of the room. Darius locked the door behind him but I was determined to ignore him. I refused to actively participate in anything that could annoy me and at the moment, Darius was annoying me.

"I am sorry I flipped out on you like that," he began slowly but I didn't turn to him.

I walked over to the bed and although it was perfectly dressed, I decided to brush off invisible wrinkles from it and busy myself with righting everything in the room that I felt was wrong. Darius knew what I was doing and I could feel his annoyance seeping off him but he chose not to act on it.

"I know staying in the house is not ideal for you but it is the best decision to keep you safe and I will not risk your safety for anything."

"Why?" I turned on him with my arms crossed over my chest and to say he was confused would have been an understatement.

"What do you mean by why?"

"Why won't you risk my safety? Why are you so determined to keep me safe by your standards? Is it because you need me to break your curse? Is that what this is about? All of this is for a stupid curse that doesn't even concern me."

"That's not why."

"Then why?" I yelled. "The only reason you care this much is because of the curse. You don't care whether I live or die. You are just worried that if I die then your curse will never be broken. I am nothing but a tool to you and I refuse to be used by you or anyone else. If I'm going to be your tool then I would rather just hand myself over to Faye right now."

Darius reached out faster than the speed of light and pinned me toward the wall. My words caught in my throat and my breath came out in pants. His chest was heaving from the force of his anger and I worried if maybe I had pushed him too far.

"Do you think I would go to these lengths over a curse?" he spat. "I have been under the curse for five years. Do you think I cannot bide my time for another five more? Do you really think so little of yourself?"

"It doesn't matter what I think of myself. What matters is what you have shown."

"For someone so smart you are incredibly stupid," I opened my mouth to protest but he cut me off. "You have never been a pawn in my game Leindra, you are much more than that. You are the fucking queen on my board. Everything I have done has been to protect you. It has always been about you. If it were about the curse I would have married and marked you forcefully, your will be damned. I would have broken my curse and you would have been miserable."

It had never occurred to me before that he could have done that.

"The first time I saw you was in the hospital after your parents died. I had returned to Lunarius for the first time and I knew then that you were my mate but you looked so sad and broken that I knew I couldn't burden you with that so I waited. Even after you left, I waited and I gave you space but ever since that moment I saw you in front of the gas station diner, it had all been for you."

"I put Serena in the bar for you. I sent every man I had out searching for you when you disappeared. I am working my men to the bone for you. I don't care about the curse. I never had. You have just been too stupid to see it."

I should have been offended that he called me stupid twice in that entire speech but I couldn't focus on those words. The implication of what he was saying settled on me like a wet blanket snapping me back to awareness. I opened my mouth to speak but no words would come out. A part of me told me that it was all a lie and he was saying all this because it was what I wanted to hear.

But there was another more quiet part of me settled in the recesses of my heart that told me he was sincere. I checked his eyes for any traces of dishonesty but there was none. For the first time, Darius' eyes were raw. His emotions were laid out on the table in front of him and he had rolled the ball into my court.

I didn't know how to respond to it because I had never had someone do for me the things he had just mentioned. There had never been another soul who cared about me. I was the oldest, I was the caretaker, I didn't know what it felt like to have someone take care of me. I didn't know how to accept it. I was wired to push away the people who wanted to help me. It was all I had ever done.

He must have seen something in my expression because he sighed. He moved his hands from the wall by my head to thread into my hair. His grip was not tight but rather soft and caressing as he stroked his fingers down my scalp. I found myself relaxing into his hold despite my body screaming at me to flee.

"Have you ever been taken care of?" he asked and I stayed silent. It was like he had read my thoughts and placed them out in the open. "Will you let me take care of you tonight? What you went through would be traumatic for anyone in your situation." "I don't want to fuck you tonight, Darius."

His lips curled up. "I never said anything about that. I said I wanted to take care of you. Will you let me?"

I hesitated before nodding. I didn't know what he had planned but I figured it would not hurt to take a leap of faith. He pulled away from me and disappeared into the bathroom. I heard running water and shuffling but I had no idea what he was doing in there. I stood at that exact spot until Darius returned.

He gestured for me to come over and I found my legs moving of their own accord. He had filled the bath with water and bubbles danced around the surface. I couldn't help but smile because it had been a while since I took a bubble bath. Scented candles lined the entire bathroom and I wanted to ask where he got them but I knew it would ruin the mood.

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I stopped directly in front of Darius and all words left my throat when he reached for the buttons of my shirt and started to make quick work of them. His actions felt more intimate than erotic and I had to look away because of the intensity.

He pulled the shirt off and went to his knees to work on my trousers. Another memory of him on his knees had me flushing pink and my knees buckling. I saw the corner of his lips quirk up into a smirk and I knew that he was thinking the same thing I was. Within a flash, I was naked and Darius held out a hand to me as he led me into the tub. The water heated my skin and instant relief washed over me. I looked up at Darius only to see him making quick work of his clothes too. He left his boxers on though as he climbed into the tub behind me.

The tub was massive enough to take both of us without any struggle. I didn't know what he was doing but when I felt his hands begin to knead the knots in my shoulders, I sagged against him in relief. I didn't know how stressed I was until he started and when he hit a particular sensitive spot, I let out a small moan.

I was pressed up against Darius so I could feel the instant he hardened against me. I expected him to take a detour and make it sexual but he didn't. Instead, he settled for making sure he massaged my shoulders until I was boneless and spineless against his body.

My back was pressed against his chest and he pushed my hair behind my ear and pressed a soft kiss to my head. It was a simple action but one so warm and intimate that it had butterflies creating a ruckus in my belly.

"Darius," I began slowly and he hummed. "Did you mean what you said earlier or were you just saying it?"

I hated how vulnerable my voice sounded but I needed to know. I needed to be certain of what I was walking into.

"I have never lied to you, Leindra. I will never lie to you. There is no rush for you to make a decision now. We have all of the time in the world. I waited for you this long, I can do it again."