“Okay. I’ll text Adelaide and let her know.”
I pull on my hoodie and trainers, ready in record time. The shower can wait until I’m back in my room.
Because I’ve got a feeling that if I keep her here much longer, she’ll bolt.
“Let’s go.”
I hold out my hand to her.
She stares at it for a moment, and the hesitation in her eyes immediately grates on my nerves.
I understand she’s hiding something. I understand that whatever secret she carries has her convinced that keeping her distance is somehow the right thing to do.
That doesn’t stop it from pissing me the fuck off.
Eventually, she places her hand in mine, and damn if that simple touch doesn’t do something ridiculous to me.
I’ve never held hands with anyone before, never saw the point of it, and now I’m the one reaching for her.
A pathetic state of affairs, really.
Hand in hand, we make our way to the door, and I pull it open.
The second she tries to pull her hand from mine, I tighten my grip and keep hold of it.
“We’ll use the back exit,” I say. “No one will see us.”
She doesn’t try again as we walk in silence.
My mind, however, is anything but quiet.
Tonight was supposed to help me blow off steam. Beat a man within an inch of his life and regain some semblance of control.
Instead, I lost it.
Something that hasn’t happened in a very long time.
And I blame the redhead who occupies my thoughts day and night.
Now I’m even more wound up than before, especially after I thought that, at last, I’d have her.
In secret, perhaps, but she’d be mine.
Instead, she’s frightened.
Hiding something.
Which means I need to dig deeper.
Because one way or another, I’ll get the truth.
And eventually, Piper Ashthorne will be mine.
All of her.
Chapter 16
Hunter
