Page 38 of Skin Trade

Josie’s blood was on her hands whether it was there for real or not. Not thinking, she staggered into the shower and turned the tap on, only allowing herself to slide down the tiled wall and sit in the cold spray.

“Josie,” she said into her hands. “Oh, Josie. I’m so sorry.” As Seth’s effect on her wore off, every image of the night came into Payton’s head and tore through her without mercy. It left her rocking … rocking back and forth with it, because if she stayed still, those images would tear her apart for real.

When Seth knocked on the bathroom door, she didn’t answer. She couldn’t answer. Her head was so lost in it all. What had she done? What had she done to Josie?

She lifted her knees to chest, pushed her fingers into her scalp, digging in to feel something other than what she had done to the girl she had seen as a friend, an innocent girl not meant for this world.

“Blood,” she said to Seth. He’d come into the bathroom, stepped into the shower with his clothes still on. His shoes clicked against the bathroom tiles where the water didn’t reach. “I can’t get it off. It’s all over me. Everywhere.” Her lip trembled; her body shivered. Her dress was soaked. “It’s all over me.”

Without a word, Seth grabbed the bar of soap that rested on the dish above her head and then came down to her, sliding himself down the wall to sit beside her under the cold spray. He took her hands in his, rubbed them against the soap bar, rubbed them between his hands. “It comes off eventually.”

But how could it? How could it ever come free from her? She wrapped her arms around herself, bent into her knees.

She didn’t fight as Seth came behind her, slipped his fingers under the strap of her dress. “Take the dress off. I can fix it.”

“I don’t think anything can fix this.”

He put his arm around her, pulled her into him. “I can fix it all,” he said, and pressed his face into her hair. “I promise.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Payton rolled onto the crisp emptiness of the bed beside her and tried to fight off the sudden onset of disappointment that threatened. When Seth had laid her in bed the night before, he’d lain down beside her. So quiet, so protective in that way he had. She’d fallen asleep silently watching his eyes and watching the way the bright yellow in them had begun to fade, as whatever it was that had happened left his body.

She’d not asked him what it was. Hadn’t dared. Her mind was too locked on to what had happened to Josie. It would stay with her forever.

She let out a long yawn and rolled onto her back. It was dark again. The days just seemed to roll over. But this was different. She felt the darkness against her body. Like it could sense the shifting of the day, the rising and falling of the moon.

God knows how, but she’d managed to sleep the entire day away. Her head ached, and as she tried to remember if she’d woken, even at least once, the ache in her shoulder told her she’d not even moved, let alone woken.

The curtains covering the balcony doors had been pulled back enough that she could see the faint lights of the world below. Seth must have opened the curtains, or perhaps he’d left so early, he’d forgotten to close them. For some reason, she didn’t like that idea. It was much more comforting to think he’d lain beside her for a long time. Damn mind. She didn’t like that either. He was getting to her. Getting inside her head.

Her stomach growled in protest at the lack of food. She hadn’t eaten anything since she’d stormed out from dinner with Seth and Tasha the day before. Everything had been a roller-coaster of things since then. But worse than that, his games, him, Seth … try as she might, he was seemingly impossible to work out. Maybe this was his lure, to play with her a little, to teach her things. Then it had all gone so terribly wrong, and Josie had paid the price.

Josie …

Getting up, Payton wrapped a gown around her body. Seth had left it on the chair near to her bed, perhaps. But she welcomed it against her skin, as if she could comfort herself with the material embrace.

He’d cleaned the bathroom too. Her dress was gone. He’d removed it from her body in the shower, and instead of teasing her like she’d have expected, he did nothing more than hold her. Standing in the bathroom now, she swore she could feel his arms around her, the way he had held her last night, all strong, a form of masculine protection she hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Things had changed between them in that shower. Things she didn’t understand. It was like she knew him, or some part of her did. If she closed her eyes tight enough and focused, she could bring him to her mind with vivid quality, she could convince herself when she opened her eyes again, he would he standing right in front of her.

The door in the bathroom to his room wasn’t closed. Daring, she pushed at it. “Seth?”

No answer.

A little more with the door. “Seth, are you in here?”

Clothes were strewn across his unmade bed and flecks of light came in through his window, the curtains in there were also not closed. Payton dared to step into the room. She didn’t feel the same way she had when Sky had led her this way; more as if she were trespassing. It was oddly comforting to be in here, surrounded by the scent of him. But then she touched her fingers to her throat. He’d bitten her.

How could she have forgotten that. It was possible that what she was feeling right now was nothing more than the aftermath of his mouth on her throat, his saliva against her open wound. Vampires could do that with their bite. They could get inside.

She could have kicked herself, but still, it didn’t stop the feeling from riding her. It was like having this deep incessant need to go and find him. But for what? She didn’t need anything from him, and he didn’t need anything from her. She slipped out of the room and made her way to the lift, the same way Sky had taken her when she’d taken her down to dinner.

The doors to the dining room were wide open this time, and the place was in disappointing darkness. The room was empty, and it felt like it had been for a while. Not like he had just been in there.

“This is crazy.” It was like tempting fate. When she was living in Creven’s house, she prayed for the times he left her alone. A week of peace away from him and his buddies was like getting a holiday, but Seth … she was actively seeking him out and it made no sense. None whatsoever.

Turning on her heel, and fully determined to go back to her room, she got back on the lift and instead of pressing the number for her floor, she pressed for one and bit her lip. She should have gone to her room. Hell, she should have gone back up there even if it was just to get dressed. There were surely rules about her parading herself around the place in just a nightgown. Or maybe there weren’t and that could be the point.

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