Goddess Sacrifice (12 page)

“I don’t think that.” But now that she thought about her sudden mood swing, maybe he was on to something. “Maybe I was trying to tempt you, so you wouldn’t want to be with her,” she whispered.

He stroked her cheek. “I don’t want to be with her, sweetheart. I love you. I will
always
love only you.”

“I know. And I’m not saying that’s what happened. I do know that it just feels natural being with you like this.”

“It feels natural for me too, but no matter how natural if feels to be with you in
every
way, I would be devastated if you regretted the experience. I just want it to be perfect for you.”

She sighed. Despite how much she wanted this right now, she knew he was right, and the fact that he stopped made her love him a little bit more.

But her body was still being a little stubborn. She leaned closer to him and stroked his chest. “I could change your mind,” she whispered against his neck.

Adin breathed into her hair. “You could very,
very
easily get your way.” And from the husky tone of his voice, she was sure he was right about that.

“It’s not just my way. You want this too.”

“You’re right. I want you so much, Legacy, in every way. You don’t know how hard it is for me to try to think logically when you’re with me like this,” he said breathlessly, shutting his eyes.

She rolled over on top of him and kissed his neck. He clutched her waist as she slid her lips up to his ear. “Just because we’re not going all the way, it doesn’t mean we have to stop
everything
we’re doing,” she whispered, kissing his ear.

Adin moaned as he grasped her face into his hands, pulled her against his lips, and kissed her, hard. She was lost to everything but this man. He held her, kissed her, touched her, and she knew she’d never tire of it. As he made love to her mouth, his hands released their grip on her and began to roam. He explored parts of her he had never before. And she relished it. Returned it. And loved it.

They continued making out for awhile, rolling around on his bed, and it was the most intense experience of her life. She moaned when his lips found her nipples, trembled when his fingers slipped inside her panties, and panted when her shaky hand found his hard flesh without any objections. Their clothes had stayed on, but they hadn’t been a deterrent. When Legacy’s thighs went rock hard and she saw stars behind her eyes, she felt Adin’s release on her fist as he groaned in her ear.

Adin collapsed onto her, and her heart pounded against him. When they finally pulled away and cleaned up, she still felt her thighs trembling in the aftermath. Then he pulled her to him, adjusted the covers, and sighed contently. It had been perfect. Hot. And as she drifted off to sleep in his arms, she knew the next time they were together like this, there would be no more waiting.

She only wished her night in his arms had been dreamless. But it hadn’t been because she’d found herself in her familiar dreams once again.

The first part was always Adin telling her to be careful with 1887 and lightning glittering down from the sky. The second part had her and Adin in Florida with red warning flags out and hurricane River coming out of the Gulf. Adin wanted them to evacuate, but as they started to run, Medusa and Venus appeared in front of them.

“Everything isn’t always as it seems,” Medusa said, and then her wavy hair turned into snakes, falling all around her. When the snakes came toward Legacy and Adin, the hurricane morphed into River, and he threw himself in front of the snakes.

“No, Mom!” he yelled, and the woman screamed so loudly the ground trembled.

River turned to Adin and yelled, “I will tear you apart!”

Then Legacy’s mother appeared in front of her with worried eyes for a fraction of a second while River turned back into a hurricane, charging for Adin.

Then Legacy turned to Adin. “What we should do and what we want to do are two different things.”

“I will always love you, princess,” Adin whispered.

Then Legacy’s mother appeared again. “Can’t you see your sacrifice?”

Legacy shook her head and then her mother screamed, “Wake up!”

Legacy woke up suddenly, looking around the room, trying to remember where she was. When her brain acknowledged she was at Adin’s house, she snapped her head to the side, looking for him. But wasn’t in the bed with her. It was really early, so he should still be asleep.

She felt uneasy with how her dream ended and Adin missing, so she jumped out of bed to change. When she did, she noticed a note on the door.

Taking care of breakfast. Keep the bed warm. Love, Adin.

Breakfast? It wasn’t even seven o’clock in the morning. She changed her clothes anyway and went downstairs. She walked into the kitchen and saw he had some stuff already out to cook breakfast. Maybe he’d started breakfast and had to go to the store for some things he needed. She felt a little better, but she still didn’t understand her dream.

She walked back upstairs and watched television for over an hour. Adin still hadn’t shown back up, so she tried calling him. If he were running to the store, he should’ve been back by now.

He didn’t answer, but as she hung up her phone, it rang. She yanked it back up, expecting to see Adin’s number. She shivered when she saw it was Lissa.

“Hello?” she whispered.

“Where are you at?” Lissa asked quickly.

Lissa had talked to Legacy about Adin staying over at her house and hoped the news of her current whereabouts wouldn’t generate a new conversation. She took a deep breath and answered, “Adin’s.”

“Are you two okay?”

“Yeah, there were snakes in our yard last night, so I came over here to warn Adin. He wanted me to stay.” She hoped that’d deter Lissa from any lecture.

“I’m not talking about that. What happened to his car?”

“What do you mean?” she barely whispered as she stood up.

“It’s parked in front of Rose’s house. It looks like it’s been totaled.”

She gasped, and the wind blew so hard that it knocked her to the floor.

Adin wasn’t back because he’d been in a car accident, and she didn’t know where he was…if he was okay…if he was alive. It immediately started raining as Legacy tried to stand up as she clung to the phone.

“Legacy?”

“A-Adin left this morning to go to the store. I don’t know what time he left.” She cried.

“Have you talked to him?” Lissa asked.

“No. I was asleep when he left. He, um, left a note.”

“Come home,” she ordered.

“No, I have to find Adin.” She started running down the stairs.

“I’ll go talk to Rose. You just come home.”

She ran to her car and peeled out of his driveway. She was crying hysterically as she drove home. The rain was relentless, but she didn’t care. She just needed to find Adin.

When she got home, Lissa was in the living room, purse in hand.

“Rose wasn’t home. She’s at the hospital.”

Legacy cried harder because she knew what that meant. Rose was at the hospital because that was where Adin was.

“Let’s go,” Lissa whispered.

Lissa walked her to the passenger door of her car and drove her to the hospital. When they arrived, they rushed into the waiting room. Rose and Myrha were sitting down and talking when she walked in. They both looked up at her and got up, walking over to her and hugging her as she cried.

“W-w-where is he?” she asked.

“In surgery,” Myrha said. “He has some internal bleeding.”

“What else is wrong?” she whispered.

“He has some cracked ribs from the seatbelt, burns and bruises from the airbag, and cuts from the glass. They’ve stitched him up already.”

“H-have you t-talked to him?”

“Yes, dear,” Rose said.

“Is he h-h-hurting?”

“He’s banged up pretty bad, but they have him doped up. He’ll probably be really loopy when he gets out of surgery.” Rose chuckled lightly. Legacy figured she was trying to ease her concerns, but it didn’t work.

She sat down and waited for news from the doctors. She continued to cry periodically, but she was a little relieved that Myrha and Rose seemed to be taking this better than she was. They’d seen him already, so she tried to take comfort in their calm demeanors.

When the doctor came out, she jumped up and walked to him. Lissa, Myrha, and Rose followed behind.

The doctor looked at Myrha. “We stopped the bleeding, and he did really well. He’s in recovery now.”

“When can I see him?” she asked quickly.

“After gets out of recovery. His room is ready, so you can wait in there if you’d like.”

“Thanks,” Rose said, and she placed her hand on Legacy’s back to guide her to the room.

They sat in this tiny room waiting, and it seemed as if it were taking forever for them to bring Adin in. When the door finally opened, she jumped up and watched them push the bed in and up against the other bed. The nurses and orderlies were around him, so she couldn’t see. She waited until they transferred him from one bed to the other and pushed the other bed out of the way before she walked over.

When she saw Adin, she started crying again. He had bandages and dried blood everywhere. Lissa stepped up to her and held her shoulders while she tried to cry softly. She didn’t want to wake him.

She heard him groan, and he turned his head to the side. “Mom,” he murmured. “Call Legacy.”

“She’s here,” Myrha whispered as she stroked his arm.

He glanced around the room with heavy eyes. When he saw her, he lifted his head. “Hiii, sweetheart.” Then he sighed, and his head fell back. He lifted his hand, though it seemed as if it took great effort. “Come here.”

She tried to control her crying, but she wasn’t doing a very good job. She walked slowly to his side and stroked his arm.

“Don’t be upset,” he slurred with his eyes shut. When she didn’t stop crying, he opened his eyes and looked into hers with determination, wobbly determination, but determination nonetheless. “I’m going to be fine, princess,” he whispered.

She nodded and turned to the side to pull up a chair. She sat right beside him with her chin on the mattress, watching him as he fell back asleep.

She stayed the rest of the day, watching him as he slept most of the time. When it came time to leave, she understood for the first time how difficult it had been for Adin to leave her alone after her accident last summer.

“I don’t want to go,” she whispered as she cried to Rose.

“I’ll take care of it, dear,” she said as she stroked Legacy’s hair.

Rose left the room while Lissa and Myrha talked amongst themselves. When Rose returned, she had a smile on her face.

“It’s all taken care of. The nurse on duty knows you’ll be staying, and they’ll call us if anything happens.”

“Thanks,” she breathed.

After they left, she leaned over as far as she could, put her arm gently around Adin’s upper chest, and rested her head on his pillow beside his head.

And she cried herself to sleep.

Chapter Ten

It was early the next morning when Legacy awoke, but it wasn’t because of the nurse checking on Adin again or because she had another bad dream. Adin was stroking her hair.

She looked up at him and fresh tears formed in her eyes.

“Hi,” he whispered.

Her breathing hitched, and her eyes shut while she leaned her forehead against his. “Hi,” she murmured as her tears leaked over.

“I’m sorry you’ve been worried.”

She shook her head. “Don’t worry about me.”

“I have to worry about you because I love you.” Adin turned toward her and winced.

“Please be still,” she said as she sat up.

He looked up at her and sighed. “If you want me to be still then you need to come back down here by me.”

She half-smiled at him as she leaned her head back down by his.

“Thanks, sweetheart.” Adin kissed her head, and he fell back asleep.

It was late that morning before he woke up again, and Myrha and Rose were already here. When they wheeled Adin away to run some tests, she called Calli. Being the best friend that she was, she quickly came up to the hospital to give Legacy moral support. When she got here, Legacy asked her BFF to go for a walk outside to get some fresh air.

When they were outside, Calli asked what happened, and Legacy told her about the snakes, almost having sex, and Adin leaving to get breakfast. Adin had been out of it the majority of the time, so she didn’t know anything about the accident itself.

“I saw River this morning,” Calli muttered.

Legacy flashed her eyes over to her. “Did you see his mother?”

“Yeah, she’s here too.”

“I wonder if River knows what she tried to do?”

“I don’t know. Do you want me to talk to him?”

“That’s okay. I’ll talk to him tomorrow. Right now, I just need to be with and focus on Adin.”

They walked back up to Adin’s room and waited for him to return. When he got back, he visited with Calli while she held his hand. He seemed to be doing a little better and was able to talk more than he had before. As they all visited, a knock sounded on the door.

“Excuse me, Mr. Sheppard,” a man said, walking into the room. “I’m Officer Jones. I’d like to ask you some questions about your accident.”

Legacy looked at Adin, and he shrugged as he inclined the bed.

“Can you tell me what you remember?”

“Sure. But it’s not much. I, er, was coming back from the store. I remember rounding the last corner, but that’s it.”

“So you didn’t see the guy who hit you?”

“No. Well, I don’t remember.”

“We’ve interviewed him, but they couldn’t get much out of him. He’d been drinking. We’re running some drug tests too. We think he was high on something when he hit you.”

Legacy’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked at Adin, and he rubbed his thumb on the back of her hand.

“Why do you think that?” Rose asked calmly.

“He said he took his eyes off the road because there were snakes crawling on him.”

Legacy gasped, and Adin’s eyes cut to her. He watched her carefully as he talked to the officer. “Will you keep me posted?”