Chapter 2: Glasshouses in Heaven

Pain weighed my eyes down. I felt someone turn me on my back and the pain zapped across my whole body as a pair of strong arms lifted me. I was a wolf. An Alpha's daughter, but still I didn't have a wolf's fast healing abilities. I was latent. My wolf was basically non-existent.

When my eyes fell open, I was being put in the backseat of a car. I could smell something very masculine and hot. As I was still being arranged in the backseat, I pinched an eye open again, but for the briefest moment, I saw a sardonic smile on the stranger's face. It was gone the next minute, but I wondered if I was seeing things. Maybe the pain had made me delusional. He was also very beautiful, but I couldn't watch anymore of him as a dreamless sleep took me.

•••

I woke up in a very unfamiliar environment a while later. My body felt battered but much better. I wondered if it was from the whipping, then I gasped. Slowly, it hit me. A car had run me over. The last thing I remembered was being put in the backseat of a stranger's car. A beautiful stranger whose smell was intoxicating.

The room I woke up in was richly decorated and very masculine. Deep chocolate tones and burgundy coverings made it up. I glanced around, taking in the opulent surrounding. How had I ended up in such heaven? Was I dead already?

I felt the softness of the beddings underneath me. I'd never lain on anything this soft before, or this large. The bed itself was huge, and it seemed to spread out to large corners of the room. The soft blankets and sheets on the bed could swallow me. 

My head rested on soft pillows the entire time. I tried to get up but immediately, I laid back down in fear as the doors of the bedroom pushed open. A man came in. The same man. He walked in, stopping a few feet away. His smell caught me again.

His gaze locked with mine and his eyes narrowed like a predator's as he walked the length of the bed. Reaching its edge, he rested his tall, broad length against the bedposts.

Then he continued staring at me, folding his thick arms across an impressive chest. The light from the little lamp on the small bedside table caught the man's face and my breath caught in my throat. He was the most beautiful man I had ever laid eyes on. 

This stranger sat on the bed and reached out to touch me. His hand felt cool against my skin as he skimmed his fingers over my bandaged forehead and cheek.

 "How do you feel now? Better?" He asked, imploring with his eyes.

I nodded against my better judgement. I still felt a dull throb of pain around my body, but nothing serious. If I said I was still in pain, he would stop touching me. I didn't want that. 

"How many fingers am I holding up?" He asked again, holding up three of his fingers.

"Three." I croaked.

Quickly, he offered me water from the bedside table, and I drank. Feeling even better after downing the glass. I decided to ask what had been in the back of my mind since I woke up. 

"Where am I?" 

"My house, Beautiful. I was the unthinking fool that ran you over. I hit you with the hood of my car and your fall caused the bleeding from your head. I had to bring you here. One of my personal doctors came by earlier. You are in safe hands..." He finished.

"What did your doctor say?" I asked. "Will I be fine?"

"Yes. He said you will be after taking some medication and resting your body. It seems you've been through some things worse than the accident," he said, trailing one of the whip marks on my upper arm. 

I realised only then I was dressed in what looked like a makeshift hospital gown. It was just a man's chequered shirt with the arms cut so they were really tiny sleeves.

I drew my arms to my chest on instinct, shielding myself and hiding the marks. 

So, yeah…I was worried, frightened and crazily aroused. Probably not the trifecta of emotions I should have felt, but this man was already evoking all three from me in just seconds.

He stood up. "I've made us both dinner. Are you up for eating in the dining room or should I bring you dinner in bed?"

Intrigued, I opted to have dinner with him so I could see more of the place and maybe get a bearing on where I was and who he was. I nodded and tried getting up on my own. Immediately, I felt dizzy. My hand flew to my bandaged head as I winced, staggering. The man rushed to my side, slipping a hand around my waist and holding my hand gently while leading me. 

His touch on me was soft, and it raised goosebumps on my skin. He was so close to me, so close. I was on the verge of dying, yet his hard body pressed up against mine was all my mushed brain could think about.

He led me out of the plush bedroom and to the wide open dining area downstairs. The squares of most rooms making up the ground floor were all open. One room blended into the other. There were no doors downstairs. At least from what I could catch sight of already. 

We stepped into the dining room and he led me to a chair, pulling one out and helping me sit. I watched as he turned around and went to dish out dinner. As he returned, I took a good look at his face with the lighting from the oil chandelier above me.

Up close, this guy was absolutely mouthwatering, even more than he was in the dimly lit bedroom. From his translucent brown eyes, alight with interest, to his chiselled jaw and that sensuous, always smirking mouth. His black hair was cropped close to his head, but I could see bronze-and-gold glints in the short strands, and I guessed he spent a lot of time outdoors, perhaps running in the woods.

When I ate the first bite, an intense pleasure sparked through me as I chewed quietly. It was the first time in a long time that I sat at a dining table to have a meal and have such good food. I felt like I was in heaven. He finished before me, wiping his mouth with a napkin and turning to look at me. I met his eyes once, but I averted my gaze from the intensity I had discovered in his. I wondered what it was I had just seen. Interest, perhaps. The kind that would make him want to ravage me in his bed. 

Mentally, I smacked my face at the thought, feeling heat creep up my neck.

How could someone this good-looking ever show interest in my sorry self? The girl who was abandoned by her own father. I was truly delusional.

"What is your name?" He asked suddenly.

I gulped. "Faye."

"Faye." With that deep, sensual timbre, he rolled my name off his lips as if tasting it in his mouth. I loved the way he said my name. 

"A beautiful name for a gorgeous girl," he said, slipping on a vague smile as I blushed furiously.

I stopped eating. If he said anything more, I might actually choke on my food. My heartbeat was already erratic against my ribcage.

He crossed his arms over his chest, and I found myself transfixed by the way the material of his shirt strained over his thick biceps. I swallowed hard, but I didn't have to wonder why I was drooling over this man so badly. His looks alone inspired all these wickedly dirty thoughts. 

Fuck…I mumbled.

"Did you enjoy it?" 

I raised my eyebrows in question.

"The food."

I cleared my throat. "Oh, yes, I did. It was wonderful. Thank you." 

Beyond wonderful even. I had human contact as I ate on a dining table. He didn't know how ecstatic that made me. 

"I'm sorry for hitting you with my car, Faye. Harming you wasn't my intention." He reached out and ran a hand down my left arm. I was shocked by how much I liked his skin touching mine. I was even more shocked as I realised I wasn't the slightest bit afraid of this man. A man I didn't know.

"I'm Nathan," he said, reading my mind. "Pleased to meet you, Faye. I'm at your service."

I blushed again, glancing away, but he wouldn't let me. He pulled my face back with the finger underneath my chin. This time, I was sure I saw interest in his eyes.

"You have very flawless skin. I couldn't help noticing that when I changed you out of your bloodstained clothes."

So he'd removed my clothes and had seen my body. Well, that made sense. I couldn't see anyone else here with us. I was still figuring that out when I heard his voice again.

"Come, I'll show you around if you're up for it, Faye."

I got up, enjoying his attention way too much to say no to the offer. I realised earlier on that I was in a glasshouse. The rooms were all large open spaces that translated into designs with large openings, full-height windows and sliding glass doors which brought the outdoors in. 

The structures are framed entirely by glass walls, completely exposed to the surroundings. His place had an unparalleled view where it sat. I couldn't quite see everything because it was already dark outside. The ground floor had a bar, home cinema and a summer living room, the dining room connected to the large kitchen, all framed by clear glass walls that connected to the poolside terrace.

Just looking round the house made me feel awed. People actually lived like this, I marvelled.

Just then, he came to a stop behind me where I stood looking outside the window at the dense bushes. I could feel the heat from his body and I knew if I leaned back just a little, I'd be resting on his broad chest. It took a lot to stop myself.

"Faye," he said my name softly, causing a shiver to run through me. 

He gripped both arms and brought me to his chest. The top of my head barely brushed against his chin. I'd realised he was a lot taller than I'd first thought. I was powerless to resist anything he had in mind. Gosh, I was too far gone in this heaven.

"Faye, I want to grant you a wish. Anything. I'd feel better if I could do something for you." 

I turned in his hold, completely wide-eyed as I asked. "Anything?"

He nodded once.

I felt the tears coming, but I fought them, not wanting to cry in front of Nathan. Yet I couldn't help it. The thought of home made me miserable.

"I don't want to go back." I heard myself say. "That's where I got these marks from. Home. They don't want me there. Help me." 

I looked at him through the sheen of tears, welling in my eyes. He observed me with close attention and something so close to care. I had never felt anyone care for me ever and so I thought I was mistaken.

He pulled me to him, fully embracing me as he placed his lips to my ears, "Anything you wish for, Faye. I'll do anything, and I promise you, home will never find you."

I whimpered in his hold, ecstatic even though I worried it was all too good to be true. 

He wiped my eyes gently with a napkin. Then he pulled me with him, leading me down a hallway to a part of the ground floor I hadn't yet seen. We stopped before large double doors when Nathan told me to wait. He'd just be a minute.

He opened the doors and went in, headed for a far desk. I still looked around from where I stood at the doorway, understanding that his study was off limits. Speaking of his study, it was huge. Books were lined neatly on the wall-to-wall bookshelves that ran the walls of the study. Finally, I noticed a huge portrait hanging right behind his desk. 

An eerie feeling slinked up my spine at the sight of it. It was a portrait of a black rose. The same one I had seen right after his car had run me over.