Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
And then I was across the room, choking the life out of her sister. To punish her for endangering what I held most precious.
It was dangerous. Deadly, even, that I didn’t have a hold on the beast inside me during those moments. It was another path to the grave. Piper was my greatest weakness. I was only just coming to terms with that.
My thoughts fractured as the door to the bathroom opened. Piper had been in there, cleaning up, getting ready for bed.
With me.
We hadn’t spoken on the walk back to the cabin. Hadn’t touched. But I still felt her all over my fucking insides. Her gentle tone like one an animal trainer might use to speak with a tiger that had gone feral.
Except I’d never been tame to begin with.
That’s what I was then. Tamed by this magnificent creature delicately padding on bare feet through the cabin that was meant to be her doom yet had turned into my salvation.
She was nervous. I could feel it in the air. See it in the way her body moved, the slight stutter in her step, the downward cast of her eyes, her teeth nibbling the soft flesh of her lips.
Those full lips I itched to feel moving over mine, the mouth I was desperate to claim. Yet those needs were clouded by something wrong, a buzz just under my skin, punishing me for having those needs, convincing me that I wouldn’t be able to fulfill hers.
The sheets smelled of her when I’d climbed into them. Floral, fruity, sweet with the faint spice of her sweat. A delicious combination, one I held on to as she traversed the short distance across the cabin.
Her eyes roved over me in the bed, and it took every ounce of control I had to stay still, to keep my expression free of any of the bubbling need that singed my skin.
It was a great effort not to explore the exposed skin of her legs in tiny sleep shorts that were basically panties, a tight camisole showing off peaked nipples that I couldn’t fucking stare at for a second longer or they’d be in my mouth, my teeth grazing them over the fabric.
No.
The voice was sharp in my mind.
Resist her.
I’d made the concession of sleeping in the bed because of the determined glint in Piper’s eyes when she’d declared I’d be sleeping in it, knowing she wouldn’t give up that fight. She was concerned for me. Wanted to take care of me. Never in my life had anyone wanted to take care of me. The feeling was overly warm, uncomfortable. My nature urged me to push her away, hurt her before she could get close enough to hurt me. Strike first, damage her as a warning to show her what happened when she thought she could get close to me.
Two of my baser instincts battled against each other as she climbed into the bed. One itched to claim her, bury myself deep inside her. The other sought to break her, hurt her in a way that would ruin whatever lay between us beyond salvaging.
It took all of my effort to lay still as the bed depressed, my body stiffening as her bare arm brushed across the sleeve of the shirt I was wearing.
I was fully dressed, ensuring my bare skin wouldn’t touch hers. Sully it.
I could feel the nerves radiating from her as we both lay there, staring at the ceiling, the closest we’d ever been. Though we were physically only inches apart, the depth of the emptiness inside of me formed a yawning distance between us.
She was also coiled with expectation, waiting. For something to happen between us. For me to cross the chasm and show her affection, prove I was capable of it. I imagined bringing her soft, pliant body into my arms, her head laying on my chest, burying my nose into her sweet-smelling hair. I imagined the honor of her feeling safe enough to sleep there, in the arms of a murderer. And she would. Trust me enough to lapse into a state of blissful unconsciousness
She’d give me that gift without hesitation.
The tension lingered between us, her breathing sparse and shallow, as if she was scared too deep of an inhale might spook me. Her hope was what did it, coming off her in waves, hope that I might be the man, underneath it all, to bring her into some sort of safe embrace.
With a sharp and uncomfortable sensation in my chest that had nothing to do with the gunshot wound, I turned my back on her and went to sleep.
Piper
It went on like that for a week.
It should’ve been nice. The truce we made, the truth we shared. The acknowledgement of what we were to each other. The redefining of our roles.
It should’ve been a relief.