His Only Salvation

There was an edge of desperation on the way they kissed each other, a hunger for her skin, her touch, her mouth. His tongue was so fierce it made her knees go weak.

She missed that feeling so much. It ignited the fire in her that she never knew existed. God! She missed him so much. Enough to forget that they were still fighting and he wanted to snatch her daughter away by alleging her for things she had not done.

His hands crept up to her cheeks and slowly moved lower touching her collarbones and then fumbling over her dress. Her hands were wrapped around his back making sure that he could not move away when she moaned.

He stiffened suddenly and let her go. "God damn it!" he muttered a curse as he looked at her contemptuously as if she was the reason he had lost his control.

"You can take the room for the night!" spaying those words in a hurry, he left the room and her.. Again!

She stood there baffled, hurt and humiliated recalling the last gaze he had given her. As if he had touched something dirty. His eyes were filled with disgust!

"It was all your mistake!" she should have been the one pushing him away when he despised her so much, yet like a moth she clung to the fire. She wrapped her arms around her trembling body and dragged herself towards her daughter.

Holding her in her arms, she let the tears spill out of her eyes as she knew holding them would only give her more pain.

—

Tyrone opened the door of the adjacent room in a hurry and kicked it shut after him. He leaned on the door and took some deep breaths as he touched his lips. Her warmth was still there.

She still tasted sweet as he remembered and holding her was like life had been given to a dead again. But…

He shook his head as if he wanted to get rid of that touch, that memory!

He walked in and unbuttoned his shirt, letting it fall on the ground. He looked at his back in the mirror and soon his eyes turned colder.

His back was brown and red with the burnt marks and flesh. There was no skin left. The injuries were deep with cuts and burns that reminded him of that fateful night. She was the reason for it. She had done that with him, yet like a moth, he leaned on the fire again.

"Cassey!" he took the name with so much emotion as if she was his only salvation, she was his only hell.

....

Cassey opened her eyes with Penny playing with her skin. The little girl was trying to smoothen the deep lines of the forehead of her mother. She was looking at her mother with a serious face.

"Mommy still ill?" she asked as soon as she saw Cassey opening her eyes. "Mommy needs food and rest?"

Cassey shook her head as she took Penny in her arms, which Penny gladly accepted. She kissed the cheek of her mother and laid on her chest.

"Penny loves mommy." she announced loud and clear as if it was an achievement to which Cassey laughed and nodded her head, "mommy loves Penny too.'' She kept holding the child tightly. Her warm touch made Cassey much better.

"Do you need food? Or some water?" she asked when Penny nodded.

"I want water and I also want to pee." she wriggled and then made a twisted face when Cassey laughed. She never told her she needed to go pee until she was asked.

Holding her, Cassey took her to the washroom. When they returned to the room, a maid was waiting for both of them.

She placed the food on the small table and then bowed her head.

"Master had shifted your luggage to the master bedroom. He had asked you to stay there. And a new room is prepared for the princess. Her luggage is shifted there." Cassey tightened her arms around the child unconsciously who winced.

"Penny is too small to stay alone." she replied defying the order of Tyrone as she walked to the sofa and started feeding penny into small bites ignoring the maid further.

"Your highness has said that you will not agree. But he also said that your words did not matter. The luggage is already arranged, my lady." her jaws clenched as she looked at the maid who had a cold look on her face just like Tyrone. They all hated her.

And though she was still in the palace it was not much different than the prison he was talking about.

But the night is still far away. She would show him that Penny did not want to sleep alone.

Thinking that, she ate breakfast with her daughter. Even for war, she needed strength.

"What do you like to do that day, honey?" she asked once they were done. The maid collected the dishes and left that surprised penny who was habitual of helping her mother in collecting them.

"You are not going to the shop?" she asked her mother, though she did not like it, she knew that her mother needed to work.

"No! I will not go for work again. From today, I am going to spend all my day with you darling." she replied in a soft voice shocking the little girl who jumped.

"Are you sure?" she asked again when Cassey nodded her head readily making the girl glow, "then do a pinky promise!"