Fire Bound (Sea Haven Sisters)(48)

“Come on, malyshka, look at me. I’m right here. Nothing can get to you. They’ll have to walk through me to do it. Open your eyes. Come back to me.”



That voice. Mesmerizing. Hypnotic. Impossible to ignore. Rough and sexy. Pitched low so that the sound sank through skin to her bones, branding her. Forcing out the nightmare – only it wasn’t a terrible dream. Betrayal and treachery were realities in her life. If she opened her eyes, even for him, for Casimir, she would have to face those things. She would have to admit defeat, that her uncle had won. He’d broken her when not even the deaths of her parents had done that.



“Giacinta.” The voice changed tone. Commanding. No longer coaxing. “You have to look at me.”



She didn’t want to obey. He would see she was an empty shell, that Luigi had managed to destroy her. Still, there was no way to ignore that tone. Lissa lifted her lashes, her heart so heavy she feared it was a stone in her chest. She felt him there. Casimir Prakenskii. Her rock when the world had shifted out from under her so hard and fast. A deep chasm had opened under her feet, threatening to drag her under, drowning her, and there he was.

She stared up at his face. Strong. Masculine. Cut beautifully, like a Greek sculpture, every line perfect. Strong jaw. That hint of a dark shadow. Long lashes. Glittering eyes so mercurial they stole her breath. His mouth drew her attention, his lips sinful, a wicked promise of pleasure she knew he was more than capable of keeping. Mostly, she saw strength in him.



He was beautiful. Gorgeous. He smiled at her, a gentle smile, a flash of his white teeth, his eyes drifting possessively over her face, taking in everything, assessing her emotions. Watchful. Caring.

“Golubushka. Little dove.” He whispered the endearment softly.



Her heart turned over. A sound escaped, a low, keening whisper of loss. She reached up to touch him. To find him solid, not a dream. She needed reality in a sea of uncertainty, and he was there. His bare chest was pure, defined muscle. His arms rippled with muscles. So strong, not just physically, but in every way.

“I’m lost, Casimir,” she whispered. Telling him the truth. Giving him her greatest vulnerability. She’d never felt so lost in her life.



She kept her gaze fixed on him. Casimir, the man who would see her through this terrible blow. The loss of her last living blood relation, a man she’d loved most of her life. She’d clung to him, believed in him, and deep inside, she felt shattered.



“You can’t be lost, Giacinta, not as long as you’re with me. I’ll always find our way. Just hold on to me. We’ll get through this together.”



She didn’t think that was true. She had always considered herself strong. She’d worked hard to make herself that way. She’d never felt like this. Not even when she’d been a grief-stricken child. She’d had a purpose then. She knew who she was. She was proud of that person. Now, she didn’t know anything.

“He shattered me, Casimir,” she confessed. “I’m so broken. Into a million pieces. I can’t think what to do.” To her horror, she heard the tears in her voice. She wasn’t weak. Yet now, when she needed to be strong more than any other time, when it was necessary to be decisive and take charge, two of her greatest strengths, she was falling apart.



“You aren’t, malyshka, you aren’t broken. Luigi Abbracciabene could never break you. Never. He knocked you down. Hard. It was a hit, Giacinta, a blow that put you down, but you’re going to get back up. That’s what you do – what you’ve always done – and it’s what you’ll do this time.”



She drew in her breath as Casimir bent his head and brushed his mouth over each eye, taking the burn away. He left a trail of kisses along her high cheekbones, sipping at the wet streaks, replacing the tears with tiny darts of fire. That fire seemed to find its way into her veins, warming her when she was so cold.



“I still feel so lost and alone, Casimir. He did that to me. Took everything, the foundation of my life, right out from under me. He made me afraid. I haven’t been afraid since that horrible day when the dogs took us down.”



Casimir’s heart turned over. Her eyes, so vivid, as blue as the deepest sea, looked up at him with trepidation, with that lost, forlorn look he could barely stand to see in her. So vulnerable. So alone when she wasn’t. She needed to see him standing beside her. He’d hold her up, support her in any way he could because she would always be his choice. “You aren’t alone now, lyubov moya. You’re safe here. It’s okay to feel broken. Even if you were in a million pieces, I’d find every one and put you back together again.”