"Helen..."
I whispered her name back. Her name so pretty on my lips, like they missed them.
Her body so close to me. I hold her steady on my ways my words are fumbled and to find them. Helena tilting her head away from me, "You don't want me."
"I do. You're so beautiful and amazing and smart. But..."
I pulled away from her, my chest heaving in shame. I wonder if I can tell her about him, eventually everyone will know. "I'm in big trouble. Lord Blackwood."
She pursed her lips. "You mean that nasty man with the green vest?"
"A week before the festivities started, he came to Dad. He said he wanted to buy you. But he's waiting to get Lord Blackwood to sell one of his griffins. Dad wants a whole brew of them to breed." I remember Gerald talking about his business, having the largest griffin farm in the area.
Raising them, breed them, then selling them. A philosophy for any new parent.
My hands slightly tremble at her waist. A flash of anger surges from me. Why should I be sorry for that man and what he took from me?
I tremored from anger overflowing, whatever other emotion is underneath drowning. "So he's going to sell me?"
I can't believe this is happening to me, again. I would be helpless again, as if nothing had changed since I was first sold.
Nothing did changed.
She tightened her grip on my shoulders, moving to my nape. Tilting my head so we are a breath away from each other. "Help me escape. I don't know where this will lead us, but if we're together, we can find a way to be alive."
She fought tooth and nail to earn her freedom, could I honestly say I did the same?
She patted the back of my neck, beckoned me towards her bed until her ass bounced on the bed, my body towering over her. "If you really want to keep your limbs intact, you must start managing your own life. Otherwise they will be sold to powerful people with their own deals to make."
I've wanted my freedom more than anything for so long.
And damn, I want her. I know I've wanted her for years.
I stroked her hair behind her ear, her legs parting to receive me. "I have a question that I promise is the last: do I have a choice here?"
In one breath she answered, "Always."
I leaned in, pecking a kiss on the shell of her ear before whispering, "Then I choose you."