Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
“Mhm, mhm, Seth,” I immediately protest. “Morning breath.”
He chuckles but doesn’t stop kissing me, and I realize very quickly that his morning breath isn’t foul at all.
Oh, God.
He probably brushed last night or before I woke, and I’m the only one with yuck mouth.
Feeling self-conscious, I push him away. “Okay, that’s enough.”
Seth laughs, then walks over to his pack, which he’d dropped by the quinzee’s opening. He rifles through it before handing me a brand-new toothbrush still wrapped in plastic, a canteen full of fresh water, and a travel-size toothbrush.
“Knock yourself out, baby.”
I squeal and throw my arms around his neck. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Best boyfriend ever!”
Seth steals another kiss, closemouthed—thank God—and then pushes me toward the cluster of trees between the fire and quinzee.
“I’m going to go take a piss,” he announces. “Stay where I can see you.”
I sketch a mocking salute. “Yes, sir!”
“Sunshine.”
Fire pools in my belly at the rare commanding note in his tone. I think running last night changed something in Seth, too. I think his hold on me just got a little tighter.
“Yes, Seth,” I offer with a note of obedience that surprises even me. “I’ll stay put.”
“That’s my good girl.”
I turn away before he can see my reaction to the praise. Sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick, sick. By the time I’m done brushing my teeth, Thorin and Khalil have returned to the camp bearing two dead rabbits.
Khalil starts rebuilding the fire while Thorin lays out the rabbits on a large, flat rock.
I don’t know why I feel nervous when I walk over to sit next to the fire with them, but I’m shivering again, and it has nothing to do with the cold.
“Good morning.”
Utter silence greets me back.
I wait for one of them to respond, but they never do. They both pretend they didn’t hear me as they continue to work.
“Look, I know you’re mad at me, but Thorin mentioned a camp, and I thought I could follow you. I didn’t mean to put you or myself in danger. I hope you understand why I had to try.”
The sounds of Thorin skinning the smaller rabbit while staring at me like he wishes the rabbit was me. Khalil arranging some dry kindling he managed to find is all that follows.
“Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for finding me, I guess. I’d probably be dead if you hadn’t.”
They finally respond, and before they’re done, I really wish they hadn’t.
“You’d definitely be dead,” Khalil says coolly.
“And for the record, we didn’t come for you,” Thorin adds. “We came for Seth. He just happened to find you before we could drag his ass back home and leave you to rot.”
“Oh.” My cheeks flame because I thought…I assumed…God. “Okay, um. Well…thanks anyway.”
I stand, but my knees feel weak. I keep my chin high as I walk away from the campfire, and it takes all that I have to do so.
“Don’t even think about leaving this camp, Aurelia.”
I spin back around, my gaze narrowing on Thorin, who is already watching me. “Why do you care?”
“You don’t want me to show you how much I care, so I advise you not fuck with me.”
My hurt feelings make my eyes prickle while my voice sounds thick from the unshed tears when I speak. “Go to hell, Thorin.”
I storm away just as a whistling Seth returns to camp. We pass each other as I head for the quinzee, but when he flashes me a flirty smile and reaches out for me, I dodge his touch and keep going.
I can feel Seth’s confusion like an arrow in my back, and then I hear him bark at his friends. “What the hell did you guys do?”
I don’t wait around for the answer before crawling back inside the quinzee.
How the hell all four of us fit inside of here last night, I’ll never know. The three of them are huge, so they must have been sleeping practically on top of one of another. Three bedrolls are laid out, and I don’t bother trying to figure out which belongs to who as I crawl inside the middle one and will myself back to sleep.
I knew they’d be mad, but I didn’t expect them to be cruel—not after glimpsing how hard they worked to save me. How desperately.
They care. I know they do.
So why try to hide it?
Why push me away and make me feel like an unwanted nuisance?
Maybe because you’re acting like one?
I fall asleep, and the guys leave me alone until breakfast is done, and Khalil snaps at me from outside the quinzee to wake the fuck up and fuel for the journey. He made it clear that since I want to be a brat they will not be carrying me back. What the hell? I didn’t even know that had been an option.