Fable of Happiness (Fable #2) by Pepper Winters

I sucked in a breath, my mind finally catching up to this new Kas.

Regardless that I hadn’t met this version yet, he felt like someone I could relax with. He glowed with kindness, trust, and affection. He made my heart do stupid things.

Stepping back toward me, he went to capture my hand with his. My body hummed for his touch, but instinct was still in control.

I’d been strangled by him one too many times.

I backed up.

He flinched as if I’d taken a dagger to his soul. “I would never hurt you. Ever. I’d rather cut out my own heart.”

I pressed my lips together, forcing myself not to speak. Not to deny that sentence. Not to risk him waking to a different personality or switching into a man I couldn’t defeat.

“You’re scared,” he breathed. “I’m so sorry you’re scared.”

I didn’t breathe or blink as he came even closer. His broken arm came up, along with his other, poised in place as if I was the damaged one—the one with triggers and torments.

“I’ll always take care of you, Quell. Just like you take care of me.”

I didn’t have a chance to deny I wasn’t one of his adopted siblings as his arms went around me. His chin went on top of my head, his body slipped flush with mine.

And in that moment of connection, something happened.

Something out of our control.

It was like coming home.

Returning to a place that I’d been searching for, time and time again, never to find. A familiar and unfamiliar acceptance, belonging, and indescribable peace.

Peace?

In his arms?

You’ve gone mad.

Two weeks in this valley and I was as messed up as him.

“Christ, I’ve missed you.” His arms banded tighter, trying to meld our bodies into one. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

His hug tightened even more, aggressive with desperation to hold me. His body enveloped mine as if I’d always belonged to him.

We fit together perfectly.

I struggled to stay stiff in his embrace.

I’d never had such a visceral reaction to a hug.

A hug that started off soft and innocently platonic but quickly deepened into need.

He trembled as he hugged me harder, burying his nose into my hair and heating my skin with his breath. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t stop them. I tried. I wish I could have borne it all for you. For all of you.”

Tears came to my eyes.

I wasn’t hurt that he thought I was someone else. I wasn’t jealous or envious of this girl called Quell. I was grateful. Wonderfully thankful that buried beneath all his trauma, there was still a good person inside him. A person who treated others with gentleness.

Who cared.

A few of his prior episodes, I’d gone along with his begs and threats, giving him the lines his mind needed to believe in a fantasy. But this time, I didn’t think I could pretend to be Quell.

I couldn’t hug him as her. I might not be jealous of a girl he’d been tortured with, but I was tired and exhausted and every other word that described crippling weariness. I just wanted to eat, sleep, and figure out how to help both of us.

And that doesn’t include falling in love with a fractured man.

His arms loosened around me, pulling away so he could see my face.

I winced as he looked at me. Fear creeping back that any moment the gentleness between us would evaporate.

“Wait...” His dark eyes absorbed the night, becoming blacker and depthless. He did a double take, shaking his head as if the overlay of his dreams flickered, deleting Quell and delivering me.

My palm itched to get my knife. To protect myself.

But in a breath, his hands swooped to my cheeks, his thumbs grazing over my cheekbones as he stared harder into me. “You...”

I shivered as his eyes devoured me. His hips pressed against mine, his body heat making my blood bubble and race.

“You...” he breathed again. “I recognize you.”

My entire body locked down. I prepared to fight for my life.

Stupid, Gem. Stupid!

Pulling back, I brought up my hands to latch around his wrists—one good, one broken—and gathered the courage to shove him away from me.

Only...

His nose brushed against mine as he leaned in and bowed over me. “You came back.” His mouth brushed mine, reverent and whisper-soft. “You didn’t forget me.”

I shivered.

Who did he think I was now?

“Thank you,” he murmured against my lips. “Thank you so fucking much for making my wishes come true.”

I froze as he kissed me.

His lips crashed on mine, his hands slipping from my cheeks to my nape before cascading down my back to my hips. Pulling me into him, he gave me nowhere to run as his tongue parted my mouth and poured yet more tangled emotion down my throat.

A second kiss and it was just as explosive as the first.

Just as wrong because he kissed me under false pretenses.

And just like the first, I couldn’t stop my reaction to him.

I kissed him back.

Our tongues touched and retreated. Our heat matching. Our desire igniting.

I could no longer make sense of anything.

His feet tripped backward, pulling me with him. His hands kneaded my ass, his fingers strong and demanding. With his mouth on mine, he guided me away from the door and toward his carpet bed.

Common sense tried to make me stop him. The sane part of my mind screamed warnings and strategy, but with his tongue dancing with mine and his fingers massaging me as if he’d never felt anything as exquisite, I was lost.