“Didn’t I? At that diner, three men came in shooting, and I stood up to shield you from a bullet. If I had just let them shoot you, I would have died that night and turned into the proper Bloodborn I was meant to be, and you would have healed just fine. I knew what I was doing.”
I took in his words. He gave up his royal blood status—for me?
“And I’d do it again.” His voice came out softer, almost comforting. I found my heart wanting to give in, but I couldn’t. I turned backtowardthe water defiantly.
“I’m going to pull you down now,” he said carefully and began to hold my weight more.
“Why so you can rape me again?” I snapped, and suddenly his arms dropped me so quick that I let out a scream as I lurched forward and lost all footing.
“What?” I heard him say as I slipped and fell into the water.
It was like hitting ice. I felt my always-cold body hit that water with such force I lost my breath. Water filled my lungs as I scrambled to kick and wave my arms above water.
Finally, my head popped up, and I began spitting out the water. I kicked as hard as I could to keep afloat as I pushed for air. A splash beside me caused me to dip back under the water just as I had managed a full gulp of air.
Strong arms wrapped around me, and together, we kicked and fought against the waves to reach the surface.
Our heads found themselves again touching cold air, and this time, with Desi’s hands holding me steady, we remained above the water. “Are you fucking insane?” I coughed.
“Are you?”he shouted. We both kicked and began moving toward the boat, quickly moving away from us. We were too far from the dock to swim to it. We’d have to catch the boat. “You think I did that on purpose?”
“What? Rape me?” I said the words again, and he hissed.
“Stop saying that. Will you fucking listen to me for a minute?”
“Why?” I demanded. “Give me,” I paused, my head dipping under the water. “One good reason why I should listen to you.”
“Because I was under the influence,” he said.
“What are you talking about?” I paddled harder.
“They gave me candy. It came from Elvie. It had something in it that made me not myself.”
The candy.
I blinked and stopped swimming for a minute. I fell down under the water again, and Desi reached for me, pulling me back up.
“Scout, come on. Please don’t give up. Not like this,” he pleaded.
“You had the candy?” I sputtered. I turned to face him in the water.
“A shit ton of it. I’m sorry. I didn’t know. It made my mind— blank.”
I knew exactly what he meant. When Tully took me to that room the night before my assault, I felt blank too.
In the water, Desi held onto me, both of us kicking to stay above water. He pulled me tighter to him, and I broke.
“Desi,” my chin quivered as the realization that we had to talk about this finally hit me. “I said no. I asked you to stop.”
“Yeah, but—” he stopped defending himself when he saw the tears streaming down my wet face. “Scout, I— I’m sorry.”
“I know.” I sniffled. I let go of him and turned toward the boat. “Let’s get back on the boat, and we can talk about it later.”
He tried to reach for me again, but I turned back and dove under the water to swim faster. I reached the boat in record time and started looking for the ladder Landon had told me about.
Desi found it first and called me over to it. Begrudgingly I did so, and together, we climbed back onto the boat.
Falling over the rails in heavy, wet heaps, we must have finally alerted the party downstairs that Desi was here. The music stopped, and footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs. I panicked and lookedtowarda sopping wet and bare-chested Desi. He was blinking rapidly, trying to get his bearings.
