Amaranthine

Chapter Twenty

© Copyright 2011 

 All work is property of Leah Crichton, any duplication or reproduction of all or part of the work without explicit permission by the author is illegal.

Revelation: (rev-uh-ley-shun)

the act of revealing or disclosing

something disclosed that was not before realized

 

My eyes flew open wide, shocked at being grabbed so quickly.  I balled my hands into fists and tried to swing at him, but he gripped both my arms in his hand and pinned them hard against the wall behind me.  His other hand covered my mouth, ensuring my silence. It was futile. I didn’t stand a chance. Orion had made his brute strength very clear. If he didn’t want me to go anywhere, I wasn’t going.

Unwilling to surrender, I brought my knee up to try and get him in the stomach, but his patience was thin and he tired of my resistance. He stepped forward, pressing all of his weight against me. Any chance of movement on my part had just completely evaporated.  In mere seconds, my worthless struggle was brought to an end. “Ireland, please. I’m not going to hurt you.” His face was dark, deep circles under his eyes adding intense saturation to their color. “I’m going to let go, but you are going to behave and not make a sound. Do you understand me?” His voice was cool and collected, the opposite of everything I felt.

As I nodded my head, tears brimmed over my eyes and spilled down my cheeks. I was shaken, but would have been more scared had he been angry. He wasn’t. There were no visible signs of the rage in him that terrified me. On the contrary, he was calm. He loosened his grip on my arms, but didn’t let go. His body eased off slightly and he removed his hand, freeing my mouth from its temporary prison.

I knew this would be my only chance to yell for help. In the millisecond it took to get the necessary air into my lungs to scream, his hand was over my mouth again, his body against mine. “Tiger, c’mon, be a good girl,” he pleaded. “I promise I’m not going to hurt you. You can’t possibly think I would. I only want you to hear me out and, unfortunately, because you are as stubborn as your hair is red, you didn’t leave me any other choice.”

I believed him. Even if I didn’t, I was acutely aware Orion could play this little game all night. Besides, I couldn’t think for one second that he would intentionally hurt me—not physically, at least. The fact that he had hurt me so much worse was beside the point. The kind of wounds Orion inflicted were not any that you could see.

“We’ll try this again, okay? I’m going to let go, and you aren’t going to make a sound, and you’re going to stop fighting me. Do we understand each other?”

I nodded. I would listen since I didn't have a choice. He removed his hand from my face and tensed, waiting to see if I would follow his orders. I didn’t even exhale. Finally confident that I would obey his rules, he slowly removed his hold on my wrists. I pulled my arms down and started rubbing at them.

“Jesus, Ireland, you’re so stubborn.” He looked down at my wrists and turned his back to me, sitting on the edge of my bed with his head in his hands. “I didn’t want to do that, I’m sorry.”

I stood frozen in place, too scared to move, but my eyes were frantic, searching for the quickest, fastest way out. “S’okay,” I mumbled. Not knowing what he wanted me to do, I remained where I was and allowed my arms to hang loosely at my sides.

He stood. “No, no it’s not okay. I never wanted to hurt you. You’re everything to me and, because I was selfish, everything is a mess.” He began an uneasy pacing across my bedroom.