Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 125465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 627(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 627(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
“Is that supposed to be a threat?”
“What do you think?” I growl. The idea of him touching her, hurting her, leaves me straining to hurt him first. To draw first blood.
“Because if it is, you’re gravely mistaken. You’re not a threat to me.”
“Don’t make me prove you wrong.” I’m barely able to stop short of throwing the phone across the cabin after ending the call. The heartless prick. The cruel, hardheaded asshole.
“Ren?”
Scarlet’s voice is a bucket of ice water over my head, bringing me back to the present moment. To her, scared and confused. She needs me to be better than this.
Which means not showing what River’s threats did to me.
I was worried about what he’d do to Q? That’s nothing compared to what he’d do to Scarlet. If only to make me sorry for going against him.
She’s wide-eyed and trembling hard enough to rattle the bedframe when I reach her. “Hey. Everything’s fine,” I murmur, turning up the flame on the lantern beside the bed so the room’s not so dark. “You’re safe. I’m here.”
“Who were you talking to?”
My body is tight—seething, barely controlled—as I sit on the edge of the bed. “Nobody you need to worry about.”
“You sounded upset.”
It’s easier to pretend I didn’t hear her as I unlace my boots. “I’m surprised you woke up at all. You were out cold.”
“It’s been… stressful.” She whispers the last word, her voice shaky like she’s afraid to admit it, but at the same time, wants to be sure I know what I’m putting her through.
“It doesn’t have to be. We can be happy here, so long as you trust me.”
“I’m trying. I really am.” Sincerity rings out in her voice and shines from her hope-filled face—only to fade as I stretch out beside her. She stiffens, her breath catching, and it’s enough to make me hate myself. This was the only way it could go. I didn’t have a choice. How can I make her understand that?
“It’s only me. You don’t have to be afraid of me.” As if to prove it, I do what my body’s compelled me to do ever since we arrived.
Rolling onto my side to face her, I take her in my arms. Awkward, yes, but there’s enough give in the belt that I can pull her in until her head is on my shoulder. “You have to admit, it’s nicer when you don’t feel so cold. I know I feel a lot more comfortable with your warmth so close to me.” I’m not going to hurt you. I’m never going to hurt you.
Slowly, the tension built in every joint and muscle begins to dissolve. Every breath releases a little more of it. The worry when I couldn’t be with her. The physical pain of yearning for her the way I’d yearn for air if I were underwater. The certainty that I’d die soon without her. That the pain would consume me.
Yet it’s the way she loosens up that’s more gratifying. She could settle for letting me hold her close but takes it a step further by melting against me. Even now, her body can’t deny the truth. Let her childish fear tell her to protect herself.
Her heart and her body know better.
“You know what this reminds me of?” I whisper, smiling at the wall, my chin propped up on the top of her head.
“What?” Her voice is muffled against my neck. The heat from her breath gets my cock twitching, waking up to the reality of her nearness. There’s nothing keeping us apart now. There are no obstacles beyond the ones I’ve created.
I could take her here and now.
“Around… six years ago? Do you remember?”
“I don’t—oh,” she groans, flinching against me, making me laugh.
“Yeah. Oh. We warned you, didn’t we? We knew you wouldn’t want to go camping with us once you got outside with the bugs, frogs, and snakes.”
“I thought you were lying about the snakes to keep me from going with you. I thought you didn’t want me there because I was a girl.”
“I mean, yeah, it had to do with you being a girl,” I admit, laughing again. This time, she joins me, and I can almost believe she’s come around. I don’t want to leave her restrained. Not when I know the pleasure of her touch. It’s been so long since I’ve felt it. “You were such a fucking pest.”
“I just wanted to be older and mature and for you to like me.”
“I did,” I remind her, brushing my lips against the top of her head. “Until we had to go home before we even managed to get the tent set up because you wouldn’t stop crying.”
She sniffs, scoffing. “It was dark out there.”
“No shit.” I kiss the top of her head again before running my lips over the shell of her ear. “Don’t worry. You’ll always have a lantern in here to make sure the darkness doesn’t scare you too badly.”