Anotherthump.In the bedroom.
Shit.
They’d put me in the hospital, and this time, I was sending someone to the morgue. With nothing but my bare fists and determination, I charged into the bedroom, adrenaline pumping through me like a freight train.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw my attacker—to my utter shock and confusion, the small intruder swaying in my bedroom doorway was none other than my darling Sara.
Her dripping wet hair clung to her rosy cheeks, and nestled in all that gorgeous thick hair was a pair of little black cat ears that sparkled as they caught the light.
My eyes flared as I took in the rest of her, soaked to the bone, wearing nothing but a sheer slip dress that clung to every forbidden curve that I knew—would lead me straight to salvation and then to hell.
Temptation didn’t even begin to cover it. I was so completely and utterlyfucked.
CHAPTER 24
The Unicorn Horn
SARAFINA
Three minutes earlier…
I punched in the door code a second time, and it beeped at me in warning. “Come on.” I muttered, knowing full well it was user error as I squinted at the keypad in the darkness. “Please, please, please open.” I tried again, my shoulders sagging in relief as the locking mechanism finally whirred and the keypad flashed green.Thank God.
I looked over my shoulder where my creepy Uber driver was still waiting, parked in the courtyard, and bolted inside the grand entry. The ornate door thundered as I slammed it shut, plunging me into eerie darkness as I promptly locked it, triple-checking that it wasdefinitelylocked, before I stumbled under the Kensington coat of arms and into the massive manor.
Fucking creep.
My footsteps echoed as I blindly made my way down the dimly lit corridor. I thought I was doing pretty well, until I crashed straight into a table, nearly knocking an antique vase off its surface in the process. Wide-eyed, I gripped the intricate ceramic piece, settling it back down on the tabletop. I didn’t even want to know how much that thing was worth—probably a one-of-a-kind, gifted to some royal, somewhere at sometime. I peeredinto the darkness behind me with an uneasy shiver, feeling the shadows move as I quickly darted towards the stairs in the back.
I practically crawled up each slippery step. The deep green marble staircase blended with the shadows, making it next to impossible to see where one step ended and another began—where the carpet runner had suddenly gone, I had no idea. I made it to the top in what felt like three business days and then promptly ate it, realizing I was on thesecond to laststep.
Still cursing at my throbbing shins, I braced a hand against the wall to steady myself. The carved wood was smooth and cool under my palm until I rounded the corner into the last narrow hallway, and my fingertips rippled over the embossed wallpaper—I gasped as I inadvertently knocked a priceless painting clean off the wall. Narrowly missing it falling onme, it fell to the unforgiving marble floor with a sickening crash.Ahh!
Hardly able to keep myself upright, I propped the painting up as carefully as I could, desperately hoping it wasn’t damaged before I headed past the first five, widely spaced bedrooms to the only one that was made up.
I gripped the brass doorknob, wondering if I was going to vomit as the thick door swung open with my weight, but there was no time to figure out how I was going to cross the long distance to the bed, because just then, the door to the ensuite bathroom ripped open.
Murderer!
A growling blur came barreling through the sitting room, directly towards me.
No! Murdering bear!
I clutched my chest and screamed, waiting to be mauled to death. This was it. I’d escaped the creepy Uber driver only to become bear jerky. “Sara?” I was still screaming as a deep velvety voice sounded from across the room, coming closer. “What are you doing here?”
I cracked one eye open and then the other. “Carter?” I blinked slowly, registering the miles and miles of wet, sculpted chest infront of me.Oh my.The tanned muscles were coming closer by the second, and if I wasn’t dizzy before, I certainly was now.
Carter was completely and utterlynaked.Except for one thing.A thin pink hair tie around his wrist.Had he been wearing it since last Thanksgiving? That couldn’t be right. I clearly wasn’t thinking straight, but how could I—in front of me was the most astonishing thing I’d ever seen.
I grinned, wide-eyed, as I tracked a bead of water all the way down those sinfully sloped obliques,straight to heaven’s door,watched that lucky little droplet dance over his muscular legs like an absolute tease before finally disappearing into the lush carpet.
Nowthatwas a rare piece of art, a sculpture fit to display for one very lucky queen.Might as well call me Your Highness, because giddy up, this knight had a horse all of his own, and I was ready to skip the carriage and ride him.
“You’re naked.” I whispered, staring atitin all of its proud, hard glory. I blinked, wondering if I was seeing things, but no, it wasdefinitelygetting bigger by the second.
I swallowed hard and forced myself to avert my eyes from the incredible specimen in front of me, craning my neck up to meet Carter’s gaze as he came even closer. My mouth formed and unformed words with no success, because therewereno words. Nope. None. I’d seen him naked before, but not like this.
No, no, no. Not. Like.This.
