I tell myself it’s to secure his grip. I tell myself I hate it.
I tell myself a lot of things these days.
Rain patters down on us as Kai carries me toward Greek Row, his breathing steady despite his own injuries. I rest my chin on his shoulder, close enough to smell his hair, close enough to feel his warmth against my cheek.
Close enough to remember why it hurt so much when he rejected me.
Chapter 58
Kai
My arms hurt, but my back hurts even more. And I don’t even want to think about my feet. I might as well not be wearing boots at all. I can feel every cut and bruise like?—
Like I’m carrying a two-hundred pound sack of potatoes around in the dark.
I slow down to maneuver Haven’s legs around a tangle of underbrush. She doesn’t even bother trying to move her legs out of the way.
“Don’t work out much, do you?” she mutters.
I speed up again, side-eyeing her with a crooked smile. “Glass houses, Heavenly. What are you, pushing one-fifty?”
She lets out a shocked gasp and punches me in the ribs so hard I grunt.
Worth it.
“Asshole,” she mutters, and I swear I hear her teeth chatter. She’s been shivering for the past few minutes. I tried to convince myself I was imagining it, but it’s obvious she’s freezing.
The fact she’s shivering shouldn’t affect me the way it does. But now that she’s mine, and that means I have to protect her, right?
Keep her safe, warm.
The thought should terrify me, but it just makes my dick hard.
I stop near a relatively mossy area, groaning as I slide her off my back.
“I can walk the rest of the way,” she says—and not for the first time.
I work my arms and shrug my shoulders, willing the burning ache to subside. “Yeah? Show me.”
She tries, unsuccessfully, to suppress a whimper as her injured foot touches the ground, despite how soft and squishy it is.
“That’s what I thought.” I take a second to scan the dark, damp forest. I hate being cold and wet. But I’d hate myself even more if I had to watch Haven shivering.
Are her lips turning blue?
It’s impossible to say in this dim light.
“Fuck,” I curse through clenched teeth as I rip off my hoodie.
Thankfully, our time in the cabin let it dry out a bit. Even damp, it’s got to be better than bare skin out in this cold, clammy night. It’s stopped raining a few minutes after we left the cabin, but the trees are still dripping, and I think it just started drizzling again as well.
“Uh…” Haven begins, and then squeal-giggles as I try to drag the wet fabric over her head. “What are you doing?”
“You don’t want it?” I demand when her head pops out of the top of the hoodie. “’Cos I’ll take it back.”
She grabs the neckline, keeping it place, her eyes catching light from God knows where, gleaming up at me. “No, don’t. It’s warm.”
“Then put your damn arms in the holes.” If I sound grumpy, it’s because I am. It’sfuckingcold out here, and she hasn’t bitched about it once.
