CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
WHAT DID YOU DO
ADELINE
“Ellin!Are you all right?” Roane has an arm around my waist and he’s shaking me. He’s hauled me out of the river, I realize, and we’re standing on the shore. “Talk to me.”
But I can’t get a word out. The mutilated hydra is slowly sinking back into the river, the water frothing and churning, and delayed reaction is setting in. I’m shaking with cold, fear and horror.
Throwing the burning branch away, he enfolds me in his arms. It’s starting to become my favorite place to be, and he’s so warm, despite the cold water drenching him. He smells of smoke. It overlays the other scents I’ve come to associate with him and that makes me unaccountably sad.
I can’t believe I’m in his arms and that he sounds so worried about me. That he threw himself at the monsters to protect me, both this time and earlier, when he rescued me from the griffin’s nest.
My heart is racing. As the shock starts to wear off, I begin to feel things. Like how his strong body is pressed to mine, the breadth of his chest, the size of those biceps wrapped around me. His height. His strength. All the differences between us, all the things that make him a man in contrast to me.
I’m not a tiny girl but I feel small beside him. Soft. Cast in a different mold, but made to fit perfectly against him. Which is… somehow bittersweet and heartwarming and arousing and…
Hadn’t I decided I didn’t want him that way? Or any way?
He seems to recall something similar, probably his general annoyance with me and all those death glares, because he roughly pushes me away.
Like he’d done earlier. Like a child who thought he was picking up a stick only to discover it’s a live snake.
And… he’s staring at me. After a moment, his lashes lower and he draws in a ragged breath. What has him so worked up?
Frowning, I glance down at myself and I’m… still naked.
Holy shit.
With a small hiss, I cast about for my discarded clothes and locate the small heap. “Turn around.”
“Too late for that, human,” he drawls, and Gods, his voice feels like velvet against my bare skin. “I’ve seen you. Held you in my arms. Remember?”
“Just do it.”
With a sigh, folding those powerful arms over his chest, he slowly, very slowly obeys, leaving me to scramble and pull on my underpants, then my petticoat. By the time I reach the dress, I know it’s a lost cause. It’s literally falling apart.
Well.Wrapping the wide fabric belt around my chest like a bodice once more, I grab my dress and pull on my stockings and shoes, feeling marginally better. My clothes stink. I have to wash them. But I feel slightly more protected, all dressed up again.
Protected from Roane’s gaze.
I can picture his expression in my mind, the half-closed eyes, the parted lips, the scar on his cheek, the hard jaw.
The shaky breaths.
The heat in his gaze.
Then a familiar croak jolts me, breaking the spell. “There you are. Been looking for you both,” Talton announces, fluttering down to land between us. “Where have you been?”
“Coming late to the party,” Roane mutters, bending to grab the griffin egg, “bird.”
“Party? What did I miss?”
“A hydra,” I whisper. “It almost got us.”
“Really? Is that the one with all those snake heads? Never liked that creature. Too bitey.” Talton croaks. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen one in years.”
“Just my luck,” I mutter, “again?”
