Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 107652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
My fingers found his shoulders out of reflex, clutching at slick, rock-hard muscle. Muscle I’d massaged. Muscle that was riddled with knots.
His bare skin felt like searing silk.
The cold water almost turned to steam around us. My night clothes clung to me, satin and lace plastering to every inch of my curves. Even numb from the cold water, I could feel everything about him—the ridges of his abdominals, the jagged rhythm of his breath, the raw, unnatural heat radiating from his chest into mine.
He lowered me onto the edge of the pool. His forehead brushed mine, barely a touch as he settled me on dry land, but it sent an electrical shock through my entire body.
His voice was hoarse as he planted his hands on either side of my dripping thighs, gripping the pool edge. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“W-What h-happened to you?” I caught the glint of red on my fingers—the hand that’d wrapped around his back for purchase. “Y-You’re b-bleeding?”
“Go change.” He arched a chin at the changing rooms hidden in another wall of flowers and ferns. “Any longer and you’ll get frostbite.” His lips twitched. “And there’s no one in here who can help you if you do. I certainly won’t.”
“B-But—”
Grabbing my hand streaked with his blood, he wiped his wet one over it, removing any evidence of his injury. “Go.”
The cold seeped past my skeleton into my very soul. “I-I don’t t-think I c-can m-move.”
His eyes dove into mine, piercing and full of disdain, yet beneath his familiar look of frustrated hate, I caught a glimpse of nervousness.
He glanced at my lips, his jaw clenching.
The ferocity of his stare woke something powerful and feral trapped deep within me. Every breath we took seemed to sync, each exhale a little faster, shallower, as the night webbed us tighter together. Whatever he’d ignited within me clawed to get free, to touch him, know him, help him—
His hand suddenly came up—hesitant and shaking. Without a word, he brushed wet, heavy hair from my cheek, his fingers scorching me.
I gasped.
He ripped his hand back as if he hadn’t meant to touch me. As if he’d reached out against all his control. “Go,” he ordered.
His voice was as arctic as the water but his eyes...
They held an ocean of secretive things. Wanting things. Hungry things.
All it took was a single stare full of chaos and confusion—one hint that he was affected—to fling me explosively to my feet.
His eyebrows rose as he looked up.
His hair clung to his forehead, droplets racing down his neck, and rivuleting over the silver disc in his chest. The red light had stopped blinking, a green light replacing it, flickering dimly with his pulse.
I hated that thing with a passion.
I wanted to tear it out of him.
Help him.
Save him.
He glanced down at the disc, his hands balling beneath the water. When he looked back up again, his face was unreadable. “Go change.”
My mind raced to know. My tongue burned with questions. “Is there any way to remove it?”
His lips thinned. “If there was, don’t you think I would’ve by now?”
My temper grew hotter, combatting the chills from the cold plunge. For the millionth time, I wished I hadn’t failed at life. That I wasn’t so broken by emotions and had somehow applied myself. I could’ve become a doctor so I could unlock his heart from whatever shackles they’d bound him in.
What sort of life was it that his every heartbeat betrayed him? That they harnessed the very thing keeping him alive—turning it into a weapon?
Another bloom of blood appeared in the water, spreading behind him. “T-Turn around.” My shivers still made my teeth chatter even as my insides warmed with rebellion. “Let me see how badly they hurt you.”
He didn’t obey, his eyes tight and cutting. “I’ve already dealt with it.”
“L-Let me see.”
His teeth ground together. “Why would I obey you?”
“Because I c-care, that’s w-why.” Bracing myself, I leaped back into the horrible, bone-breakingly cold water and darted around him before he could stop me.
My hands landed on his naked back, my gaze following the thin trail of blood spilling from a small wound on his left shoulder.
He shuddered as I pressed closer, peering at his injury. Sucking in a breath, I ran my thumb over it, tracing the angry broken skin—
He jerked as though I’d branded him.
He spun around, droplets flinging from his body. In a blur of ice and fire, he shoved me backward and pinned me against the side of the pool. The impact made me gasp, trapped between the frigid wall and the blistering heat of him.
My dressing gown floated like creamy seaweed as his hands clamped onto my hips, gripping me tight.
“I told you,” he snarled. “I’ve dealt with it.”
“But you’re s-still b-bleeding. Let me—”
“It was a throwing dart.”
“A what—?”
“I’ve ripped it out and the wound is small.” His chest rose and fell too fast, his gaze tearing through mine. “The weapons they manage to smuggle in are usually small and more troublesome than dangerous.”