“And you were trying to avoid me.” He stated it with such certainty that my eyes dropped once more to glare at him.
“I was...” I put a hand over my eyes, unable to trust myself to keep my eyes off him. “Trying not to disturb you.”
Blackthorn hummed.
The silence that followed made me squirm.
“Why weren’t you?” I prodded.
Blackthorn’s body shifted in the tub, and I couldn’t help but imagine what he looked like. “Why wasn’t I what?”
I huffed, and my shoulders drooped. “Why are you still awake? Isn’t it past your bedtime?”
Blackthorn chuckled. “Am I not allowed to go to bed when I wish?”
“Yes, of course, I just meant...” I stuttered over my words, wanting this moment to just be over already.
“Perhaps I was waiting for someone.”
His words made the air in my lungs freeze in my chest. My back pressed firmly against the door, grounding myself. I didn’t know what to say to his admission.
It had been clear from the beginning that Blackthorn was interested in me. Not that he had said it in so many words. But my sudden “saving” and then everyone calling me mistress, he had obviously told them how he felt about me. Though he’d never said so much to me.
There was a choice to be made here. I could continue pretending like I didn’t know how he felt about me in hopes that Fran had some miracle cure for my contract with Rumple lest I be forced to return. Or I could see where this could go. A far more exciting and terrifying prospect to be sure.
Sucking in a deep breath, I settled myself before lowering my hand. My eyes searching until I found those dark orbs locked on my face. “Why?”
Blackthorn’s brows rose, his broad shoulders appearing even bigger with his arms braced on either side of the tub. “Why was I waiting for you? Isn’t it obvious?”
I pressed my palms against the door behind me, bracing for his next words.
Instead of answering, he stood from the bath, water sloshing around him, sliding down his body. My eyes caught on a droplet, chasing its pathway down his muscular chest over his abs and slipping over where his defined hips. I jerked my gaze up before it could go any further meeting his smoldering gaze.
“Would you mind?” He held his hand out, gesturing toward the towel sitting nearby.
Swallowing thickly, my heart in my throat, I stepped away from the door and reached for the towel. My breath came out shaky with each step toward the bath. I stopped a few feet away holding the towel out to him.
“I cannot reach.”
Before I could stop myself, I scowled, knowing he was full of it. I took a single step forward, holding the towel out to him.
Blackthorn smirked, reaching for the towel. His hand wrapped around the end of the towel and, with a quick jerk, yanked me close.
My hands released the towel, bracing myself to keep from falling into the tub. They landed on the hard planes of his chest, his skin slick beneath my fingers. Where I once thought I’d feel a beat beneath his chest was still now.
My brows furrowed, briefly distracted by the lack of a heartbeat and not the inches between us.
“No blood.”
Lips twisting to the side, my eyes lifted. “What?”
Blackthorn’s hand sat on top of mine, moving it to settle over where his heart would be. “My heart beats when I have fed. Since I haven’t...”
My eyes drifted to our clasped hands. “No blood.”
Blood rushed in my ears at his words. The implications of what he was telling me caused a mix of confusion and, strangely enough, a pleased feeling to fill my chest. His desire to have my blood trumped his need to feed. I wasn’t sure I’d known a single man who would allow himself to suffer for the sake of a woman.
My gaze drifted back up to his dark one. The hunger there was not just for my blood. The depth of it made me gasp.
