Kraven moved quickly. “You don’t have to run.”
I shook my head, not looking back. “I’m not running.”
“It looks like it. I know what this is, Julius.”
“Do you?” I shot back.
His gaze didn’t waver. “Yes.”
I glanced back at Isla, who was now watching both of us. But not in a cautious way, which was the expression I was used to.
“I don’t know what this is,” I said. “I don’t know how this works, but I know one thing,” I continued. “I’m not losing her.”
Kraven nodded. “Good.”
I scoffed. “That’s it?”
“What do you want me to say?”
I hesitated, unsure. Nothing about this made any sense, yet there we were, trying to make sense of it. Or maybe that was only me. I was standing there having a conversation I never thought I’d have with either of them. Nothing about this was normal. It was unfamiliar and uncontrolled.
“I’m not losing her to you.” I forced the rest out. “Or losing her without you.”
Kraven studied me for a second before he nodded. “Then stop acting like you are.”
I looked back at her again. At the way she was sitting there, just watching.
Waiting.
And for the first time, I didn’t feel like I was losing her.
ISLA
I didn’t move right away after Julius walked into the kitchen.
I just sat there. Even with the space he created, I still felt him. Still felt the imprint of his arm around me and the heat of his body lingering like he hadn’t really left at all.
Kraven didn’t move either. He stayed exactly where he was, watching me the same way he had been when I woke up.
He called me out. “You’re thinking too much,” he whispered, only loud enough for me to hear.
I blinked, my gaze shifting to him. “Am I that obvious?”
“Yes.”
A small, breathless laugh escaped my lips. “That’s not comforting.”
“It’s not supposed to be.”
I shook my head slightly, looking down at my hands. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to think or feel,” I admitted.
He didn’t respond right away, not trying to fill the abrupt silence. That was one of the things I loved about him. Kraven never tried to fill the stillness in the air. He always accepted it, waiting for it to pass.
“You don’t have to decide anything right now,” he said after a moment.
I looked back up at him. “That’s what you keep saying.”
“Because it’s true.”
