I needed to stay calm. I was already torn in half. Thinking of disaster in a place like this where I had no control over the situation would do me no good. Better to stick with what was helping.
At the moment, that was tending to Wolfe. Though, being around him wasn’t exactly the best distraction. Especially after that kiss the other night.
The kiss thatstillburned my lips.
It unsettled me how something I couldn’t remember wanting could still feel so real in my body.
I didn’t know what it meant to kiss a man I couldn’t remember loving—and feel like it mattered anyway.
And gods, I couldn’t afford to unravel over it. Not now.
Seeing to him was something to do. Something to focus on besides the ticking clock in my head.
I dragged in another breath and quietly made my way out of the room.
I climbed the stairs carefully, each step creaking beneath my weight.
The house still gave me the creeps.
Since we’d been here, I couldn’t shake the impression that someone was watching me, watchingus. And they’d been watching the whole time.
Maybe they were. We still didn’t know whom the house belonged to, or where we were, or whether whoever lived here would come back.
What if they had, and we just didn’t know it?
Shit, the worst thing I could do now was scare myself.
I tried to shake off my worries, but by the time I reached the top of the stairs, goose bumps covered my body, and my nerves felt like they might snap.
I didn’t dare look back, too scared I’d come face to face with the nameless thing that haunted me.
I walked faster when I reached the landing, but my steps slowed when I noticed the door to Wolfe’s room was wide open.
Cautiously, I approached and stopped short when I looked inside and found him standing by the window.
He stood with his back to me, tall, shoulders broad and unyielding, like he’d been carved from the formidable stone of a mountain.
Long raven hair lifted in the gentle breeze that found its way through the opened window, the dark strands moving like liquid silk against his shoulders.
A loose-fitted shirt hung from his body, the fabric catching the strange light of the twin suns. There was something almost too perfect about the way he held himself. Perfect yet predatory.Dangerous.
I should have announced myself. Should have knocked or cleared my throat or done something other than stand there drinking in the sight of him.
But I couldn't move. Or look away.
I was relieved he was standing—awake, breathing, and whole— but there was something about the way he stood there that made the chaotic thoughts in my head quiet to a whisper. Like his very presence was an anchor in the storm of my fears.
That was the guy I’d fallen for.
Theguy I’d given myself to.
Wolfe Nightblade.
And he commanded the space around him with an authority that seemed to seep from his very bones.
Nerves twisted like vines around my insides.
For a fleeting second, I considered retreating, going back downstairs, and waiting until the others were awake, until this didn’t feel so…intimate. But the thought didn’t last. I’d come here for him. Avoiding him now would only make this harder.
