Stealing Cinderella(64)

“You didn’t.” I lean into him. “I’m here.”

He unbuttons his shirt, slowly removing it and dropping it onto the floor before he moves on to his trousers. His briefs are still on when he mounts me, his hands coming to rest on my head. He falls onto me, kissing me with more passion than he’s ever shown.

He drags his hands up my body, pulling my silk nightgown with them. I arch into him, and Thorsen groans, finding his way inside me. My body is his church. His place of worship. And he’s feeling especially devout tonight. We come together with a manic craving that will never be sated. I need to hear it from him too. I need to know I’m not the only one who is homesick for this place when we aren’t together. Beyond all reason, I am in love with him. Can he ever find a way to love my broken parts too?

He kisses me everywhere. Tastes my skin and inhales me. He fucks me one second and makes love to me the next. And somewhere between darkness and dawn, we both find our release, and he collapses into me, struggling to hold his own body weight from the sheer exhaustion of his day. When he rolls over, he brings me with him, so we are side by side, facing each other. Our legs and hands and breath still tangled.

I curl my fingers over his beating heart. The words are silent, but he reads them in my eyes.

I feel you.

Thorsen reaches for my hand, bringing the palm to his lips so he can kiss it. Then he places his palm over my own heart. A promise in the darkness, with words too vulnerable to say. And for a few blissful minutes, as we drift off to sleep like that, it feels like everything is finally going to be okay.





“Thorsen.”

Something nudges my arm, and I groan.

“Your phone,” Ella murmurs. “Calder keeps calling you. He’s called three times already.”

I open my eyes and meet hers. She’s halfway propped up but still trapped in my arms as she points at the nightstand.

A few seconds of silence pass before the phone starts ringing again, and when I pick it up, a sickening feeling swirls in my gut.

“Calder?”

“You need to get to the palace,” he says. “Now.”





My pulse thrashes in my ears as I drive through the palace gates, the tires crunching over gravel before the car comes to a stop. Outside, a team of medical workers is assembled, and one vehicle, in particular, catches my eye. It’s the coroner.

My body feels as if it’s made of lead as I trudge toward the entrance. Calder is already waiting for me there, his expression grave.

“Where is she?” I try to push past him. “Where is she?”

“She’s fine.” He holds me back and forces me to look at him. “Mor is fine.”

“She’s fine?” My lungs inflate with the first full breath I’ve taken since he called me thirty minutes ago. “Then what’s wrong?”

“It’s Father,” he says.

“Father?” I repeat. “What about him?”

His eyes are empty, completely devoid of emotion when he delivers the news. “He’s dead, Thor.”

The earth beneath me sways, and I stumble back a step. Calder reaches out for me, steadying me with his hand.

“Dead?” I wheeze.

“His heart,” he says bitterly. “They think it just gave out on him in his sleep.”

What he’s telling me seems too surreal. Too convenient. That miserable bastard couldn’t just be gone. Not that easily. He was supposed to be around for years, making all of our lives hell.

“Is he still here?” I ask.

Calder nods. “He’s upstairs in his bed.”

I push past him, and he falls in step beside me. “Thor, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“I need to see it for myself.”

Calder struggles to keep up with my stride as I stalk through the palace, up the stairs and down the hall to his suite. When we reach the doorway, a few paramedics are inside, loading his pale, lifeless body onto a gurney.

The first thing that hits me is how utterly discontent he looks, even in death. And the second is a wave of grief so profound, it nearly brings me to my knees. But I can’t understand why. I hated him. I’ve always hated him.

“It’s okay to feel something,” Calder says quietly. “At the end of the day, he was still our father.”

“He never liked me.” I blink, trying to dispel the blurriness in my eyes. “It shouldn’t matter.”

Calder falls quiet beside me, and there’s nothing left to say as we watch the paramedics wheel him toward us. They offer their condolences and ask us if we’d like some time to say our goodbyes.

“No.” I turn away. “I need to check on Mor.”

“She’s asleep.” Calder follows me out into the hall. “It’s been a difficult morning. I think it’s best we don’t disturb her right now.”

“I just need to see her.” I stay the path. “I won’t wake her.”

In Mother’s room, we find her asleep, just as he said she was. Aunt Runa is at her bedside, and she greets us both with hugs and condolences as we join her. For lack of a better plan, I sink down into one of the chairs, and Calder takes another. For a long while, we just sit there, lost in our own thoughts.

“Do you really believe his heart just gave out?” I ask nobody in particular.