Page 104 of Bound

Thank God he’d held back the victory parade.

“No.” He unbolted his ass, ordering himself to slide closer to her. As he reached up, wrapping a hand around hers through the comforter, he clarified, “I mean like when they change. When they become…bigger. When they become…better.”

Jayd shirked his hold by pulling her knees up to her chest and then tucking her hands between them. Brick only grinned. Silly girl. Hadn’t she seen enough proof of his tenacity to know it didn’t exactly work that way with him?

Of course she did. He saw it now, as her chest pumped faster. As a rapid pulse began to drum in her neck. But most especially as she ducked her head again, attaching her stare to the twin hills of her knees.

“Brickham.”

He cupped one of those hills beneath the firm curve of his hand. And then the other. “Yes, sweet girl?”

“You are scaring me.”

“I know.” It was gruff with his sincerity. “Because I’m scared too. I haven’t stopped being scared for the last week.”

She wiggled once more, trying to shake him off. When he persisted his hold, she dropped her head deeper, adamantly shaking her head. “You had buttons pushed,” she retorted. “That is all. You were locked in shackles from the dark ages—”

“No.” He reached in until his fingers bracketed her chin and jaw. With a masterful nudge, he compelled her face back up. He held her gaze with the same don’t-you-dare-brook-me force. “I was petrified from the second you walked away from me at the lagoon.”

He watched, holding his breath, as emotions battled for control of her expression. As he expected, she pulled in breath to start sacking him again, no doubt with his own panic room problem as the perfect lead-off.

But just as fast, she clamped her lips shut. His hope skyrocketed. She was feeling him again. Maybe not everything yet, the way they were bound before, but enough that she knew he wasn’t referencing the tight confines of the grottos around the lagoon.

He was talking about a fear that hadn’t gone away.

A terror that had doubled when he had to think of her falling back into Carris’s captivity.

An anxiety that hadn’t gone away in seven damn days.

She had to see that now too. The same way she always saw straight into him.

As their gazes held, he knew she did. And as tears welled in her eyes, bringing back the lush aqua light in their depths, his heart swelled until it shoved at his lungs. He didn’t care if they were pressed to the size of peas. He’d deal. As long as he had more of her in all the places that mattered…

You feel it too…don’t you, Pixie?

Oh God, how you feel it too.

Say it, princess.

Please say it—and then beg me to stay again.

Because this time, I might say yes.

“Brickham…”

“Yeah?”

“I really think I need to go back to sleep again.”

His heartbeat halted. His teeth locked. His lips went dry. He dropped his hand away from her face.

“Uh…okay.” He managed a stiff nod. “Sure. I understand. In the morning, we can—”

“Pretend this conversation never happened.”

With her queenly spikes circling her head on the pillow, she eyed him as if really making the request from an anointed throne. The shadows returned to shroud her, despite the unchanging brilliance in her opalescent eyes. Their intensity was like a taunt now, like rare jewels beneath museum lights. Reminding him of a splendor he’d turned away. A treasure he’d knowingly turned down.

The only gem he longed for now.