Bella tried to shift her weight, but Adonis was like a boulder. His arms hung loosely at his sides, but his chest was pressed firmly against hers. His hair tickled her chin.
She could feel his heart beating against her ribs. It was slowing down, finding a calm rhythm that matched the rise and fall of his heavy breaths. He smelled of sweat and expensive soap, and beneath that, the sharp, cooling scent of the herbs she had unleashed.
The door flew open.
"Master Adonis!" Hansel shouted, rushing in. Two large security guards flanked him. Hansel held a taser raised, the prongs sparking blue.
They skidded to a halt. The tableau froze them in place.
Hansel lowered the taser, his mouth gaping. He looked from the shattered ashtray on the floor to the shards of the tea set, and finally to his master, who was sleeping peacefully while standing up, propped against the new girl.
"Is he...?" Hansel whispered.
"He's asleep," Bella croaked. Her throat felt like sandpaper. She pointed a trembling finger at Adonis's back. "Help me. He's heavy."
One of the guards stepped forward, reaching out to grab Adonis's shoulder.
"Stop!" Hansel hissed.
The guard froze.
Hansel crept closer, sniffing the air. He caught the scent of the peppermint and valerian. He looked at Bella with a new, sharp intensity. "He hasn't slept without sedation in three days. He's in a state of total collapse. If you wake him, and he wakes up violent..."
He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to.
"So I'm just supposed to stand here?" Bella whispered furiously. "My legs are going numb."
"Adjust her," Hansel ordered the guards. "Slowly. Infinitely slowly. Do not wake him."
The absurdity of it almost made Bella laugh. The guards moved with surgical precision, as if defusing a bomb. Every shift of weight was infinitesimal, every breath held. One gently supported Adonis's back while the other slid a velvet ottoman behind Bella. They guided her down until she was sitting, Adonis sliding with her until he was kneeling between her legs, his head resting on her lap, his arms wrapped loosely around her waist.
It was an incredibly intimate, compromising position.
"Comfortable?" Hansel asked. He didn't care about the answer.
"No," Bella snapped.
"Endure it," Hansel said. He picked up the taser. "We will be outside. If he stirs, if his breathing changes, you call out."
They retreated. The door clicked shut.
Bella was alone with the beast again. She looked down at him. In sleep, the lines of cruelty and pain had vanished from his face. His lashes were long, casting shadows on his cheekbones. He looked younger. Human.
Adonis shifted. Bella held her breath, her body tensing for another attack.
He didn't wake. He just burrowed his face deeper into her stomach, inhaling sharply. His hand tightened on the fabric of her dress at her hip.
"Mom..." he murmured. The word was a broken fragment of sound.
Bella felt a strange pang in her chest. It wasn't forgiveness-he had nearly strangled her-but it was understanding. He was broken. Just like her family. Just like her.
She sighed, her hand hovering over his head before gently, tentatively, landing on his hair. She waited. He didn't recoil. He sighed, sinking deeper into sleep.
Bella leaned her head back against the wall. She watched the dust motes dance in the shaft of light from the window. She was trapped, literally and metaphorically, serving as a human pillow for a monster.
