Page 299 of Once Upon a Fable

I shook my head on my stolen pillow.

No, I hadn’t lost my mind.

I’ve lost my heart.

I gasped and jackknifed up.

Kassen Sands—my kidnapper, tormentor, andfriend?—had finally decided to rip away his darkness and prove I was right all along.

A kind and wonderful man existed beneath all the scars and secrets. A good and caring man who had undeniable skills—beaten and groomed into him—at making me shatter.

He was every power and pain combined. When he touched me, everything inside me answered. When he dropped his guard and spoke to me, every piece of me stilled and quieted to listen. And when he drew me a bath and washed my hair and fucked me as if he loved me, nothing else had existed.

Nothing.

Just him.

And me.

Just us.

We were stripped back to basics, and in that emptiness, I’d been slapped right in the face with horror.

I’m in love with him.

I grabbed my pillow and screamed into it.

“Argghhhhh!”

How had I gone and done something sostupid?

I’d already fallen for this man before. I’d fallen for the broken parts of him, the timid parts of him, the parts so deeply buried beneath his many, many psychological wounds that I doubted I’d ever see his true personality without his many ingrained faults.

It’d been painful enough to fall in love with a creature that couldn’t help itself. It’d been a constant bruise as I’d listened to his nightmares, found his dormitory, and burrowed deeper into his past.

But now?

God, now...that platonic, remote kind of love had exploded into something entirely out of my control.

I hugged my pillow, rocking it, probably looking half-crazed.

And Iwascrazed.

I was mad.

Nuts.

A lunatic.

Because I’ve fallen in love with the man who imprisoned me.

I sucked in a shaky breath, feeling a new kind of space. An awful sort of openness inside me, just waiting to fill with everlasting love for the very same man who’d done such bad things to me.

I squeezed my eyes closed, blocking out the light. Heaven forbid I’d actually fallenin lovewith a man I could never take home to meet my family. Who would never survive in society. Who would change my destiny from the successful career and cruisey existence I had planned into one full of arguments, complications, and a whole valley full of issues.

I scrambled out of my blankets.

He made love to me like he’s been waiting for me his entire life.