Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Apologizing is the right thing to do. I made a serious miscalculation, and she’s suffered for it. If she were anyone else, I’d already be in that room issuing my apology.
But she’s not anyone else. And . . . the woman gets under my skin like no one I’ve ever met. I loved Brant with everything I had, until it felt like our lives merged in a way I still haven’t recovered from, but he never drove me to the lengths Catalina can in just a few words.
And that’s from limited interactions. Will I even be the same man if I spend more time with her? Or will the fire of her presence banish the ghosts of my past?
Ghosts I’m not ready to release. Ghosts I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to release.
Brant was the love of my life. This human woman, who I’ve only known a short time, cannot replace that or take that away, but that doesn’t change the fact she affects me like no one else has since his death.
It scares me.
If I knock on this door, if she admits me, I don’t know how the interaction will go. Will we snipe at each other? Will we manage a normal conversation? Or will she provoke me and then entice me and then disable what little control I have when I’m around her?
I can still taste her on my tongue, hear her cries of pleasure ringing in my ears. My desire puts a tremor in my hands. I want to touch her with a ferocity that borders on need. I can’t guarantee I won’t do exactly that if we get close again.
Because I can’t guarantee it, I lower my fist and turn away from the door. Catalina’s needs will be seen to. I don’t need to be present to ensure it happens.
In fact, my absence will serve her further.
I turn and move away.
10
CATALINA
It has been weeks since I’ve seen Thane. At least my treatment has changed significantly since Ramanu first arrived like a crimson wrecking ball. The food has become significantly more delicious, even if it leans heavily toward fish. Embry, Thane’s sibling and heir to the territory, arrived the next day with more clothing than I know what to do with. Very little of it is practical, but that’s fine.
I’m not a practical person.
Ramanu has been showing up every other day, and even though I know it’s out of pity, I don’t care. I’m starved for company, and their company is delightful.
Even if it’s not the company I crave.
We wander the halls, and they entertain me with stories of kraken monarchs from times past. Apparently there’s been some truly questionable ones. In turn, I select my most amusing life stories, strip them of anything that might be worrisome, and share those.
We stay away from the underwater passages and climb to the top of the tower, poking and prodding in every room we come across. The ones that aren’t empty contain furniture even dustier than the room I made my own that first week. It couldn’t be clearer that this place has been abandoned.
Fitting that Thane stuffed me here and, for all intents and purposes, appears to have forgotten me as well.
I try to make friends with the staff—Annis and Della—but they’re horrified by my overtures. I can’t figure out if it’s because I’m human or a guest or just me, but they refuse to let me help with any of their tasks, and they all but run me out of the kitchen when I ask to take my meals with them.
Even with Ramanu’s visits, I am . . . so alone.
I should be satisfied with the fact that I’m safe enough, clothed, and fed. If I’m lonely, I still have a better life than a lot of people have. But a locked tower isn’t much better than a locked room, and I have too much time on my hands.
I go so far as to stare out my window and consider just how far I’d have to swim to escape. There are a few islands in the distance, one of which I think might be where the keep is, and an even bigger landmass that’s so far away, it’s barely a smudge on the horizon.
Too far. All of them, too damned far.
Even if I could swim, I would have to brave all that open space to leave. I’ve watched enough Shark Week to know just what an ocean predator can do to its prey, and I’m sure whatever these seas have to offer are so much more dangerous.
Trapped. I’m fucking trapped. A rat in a cage. A wolf in a trap. It doesn’t matter how often I pace the perimeter or how many times I climb to the roof. There is nowhere to go.
Worst of all, I can’t stop thinking about Thane.