Eva cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
Or watch you like a weird stalker,she mentally added.
“I just didn’t want to be alone.”
“Alone?” Kace tilted his head, his beautiful hair brushing over his eyes. “You can never be alone in this fucking house.”
“You can let me go now.” She looked up at her hands, pulling them. Kace only tightened his hold as another vibration rumbled up from his chest, tingling against her breasts. He settled more heavily against her, and she realised he had been naked beneath that blanket.
Very naked.
It also made her realise someone, probably Kyra, had dressed her in thin, silk pyjamas that did nothing to protect her from his growing erection.
“Sorry,” he grumbled, finally releasing her wrists, bracing himself above her.
“Your tone says otherwise.”
A smirk twisted his lips, the tattoos along his left arm brightening from his fingertips all the way up to his neck. His eyes were lazy, and Eva had to force herself to not brush the hair from his face as his attention drifted to her lips. She thought he was about to kiss her, his lips opening as his shoulders tensed, but instead he rolled off, landing on his feet.
Eva forced herself to stare at his chest, tracing the tattoos there that continued to glow as he grabbed a pair of jogging bottoms from the floor and tugged them up his legs and over his hips.
“What happened to your wound?” The cut from the sword had healed entirely, leaving nothing but a slightly pink mark. Bruises patterned across his ribs, a deep purple that she hadn’t noticed before in the darkness.
Kace crossed his arms, staring down at her. “You shouldn’t have come down here.”
“I…” Eva struggled with the exposure, his attention always so intense. “I feel safer with you.”
A growl. “No one feels safe with me.”
“Yeah, that’s probably because you’re an arsehole that’s as moody as the moon.” Eva sat up, feeling the sting of rejection.
The rebuff burned, and she wasn’t even sure what she was being rejected for. She hadn’t expected anything from him, and yet she still found herself there.
“You paid my rent, why?”
“Your rent needed to be paid, and I had the cash. It wasn’t a big deal.” A shrug, his arms still crossed, closing himself off.
Eva curled her hands into fists, looking away.
“It was a big deal. I thought everything was gone and now…”
Oh, for fuck’s sake,she thought.Please don’t cry again!
Eva let out an angry huff. “Look,” she said, concentrating so her voice didn’t crack. “I just wanted to thank you. So, yeah, thanks.”
Kace crouched in front of her, but Eva refused to face him. She yelped when he reached down to lift her into his arms, walking in powerful strides towards the lift. “Kace!” She smacked his arm away, and with a grunt he lifted her until she was over his shoulder. “Bloody hell, I’m going!”
“You shouldn’t have come down here,” he said once more. “You should have stayed away from me.”
“Put me down,” she hissed. “If you wanted me to leave so much, you could have just said!”
“Noted.” His grip tightened a fraction.
“Kace!” Eva tried to wiggle free, but other than biting him she was stuck. “Ugh! You’re insufferable.”
She thought she felt him laugh beneath her stomach, but as he made no sound, she wasn’t sure. He gave her no warning, settling her back on her legs in the corridor several floors above. Hoping no one else saw her humiliation, she turned without a word, moving back towards the room she had woken up in.
“You’re hungry, I can sense it.”
