Page 27 of The Lightkeeper

“Kit…” I was reeling—my emotions, my body—everything was spinning wildly out of control.

What just happened?

Why had he stopped?

“Stand still,” he ordered so calmly, I started to wonder if I’d imagined the entire thing.

With almost painful efficiency, he patted the terry cloth over me. Chest. Arms. Legs. I must’ve still been wet from my clothes, but I couldn’t feel it. Cold made everything feel the same.

“Don’t move.” He did his best to slip through the bathroom door without letting too much steam escape, but he was a little too big to make it without a rush of cold air hitting me and sending another tsunami of tremors through me.

A cry burst from my lips as I started to shake uncontrollably when he returned. My eyes squeezed shut as he forced the towel from my clutches and tugged my arms through something big and heavy. A sweatshirt.His sweatshirt.The fabric went all the way to my knees.

“Just a little more to get to the bed, alright?” he rasped lowly.

Bed. Blankets.Warmth.

I didn’t know if I nodded or not. I wanted to. I definitely wanted to. But everything was really starting to go haywire.

The door opened and the cold hit like a slap to the face. I hardly registered the dip of the mattress as he guided me to the bed, but I definitely felt the blankets that covered me.Cold.

Colder.

“K-K-Kit,” I whimpered, my teeth clacking together as I shook uncontrollably.

“Just give it a minute.” He tried to tuck them closer. “Just one minute.”

“C-can y-you h-h-hold me?”You’re so warm.I wanted to explain, but I couldn’t. My thoughts weren’t translating. They felt trapped inside my head, my lips too frozen to speak them.

“Fuck.”

Did he say that? Or did I?

“Please.” The word whooshed out.

I cried out when the blankets moved, but then as quickly as the cold hit me, it was evaporated by the heat of him. Big, solid,hotmale climbed into the bed next to me, his body engulfing mine.Like an animal starved for heat, I sprawled over him. My arms over his chest. My breasts pressed to his side. My leg flung over his. I was desperate for every burning inch of this man, and only then, when it felt like I was laid over a bed of hot coals, did my tremors start to subside.

“Kit…”

“Just relax,” he urged, his voice sounding like he could do anything but that.

I let another exhale out, the breath sinking me deeper—closer to sleep. But it was the lullaby of his heartbeat that pulled me under—proof that Kit Kinkade wasn’t as heartless as my captive sea stars.

Chapter Seven

Aurora

The wave crashedover me from behind. It capsized my balance and pulled my feet out from under me. I went down, my head smacking on the rocks. And then the water began to pull me, like prey toward its hungry depths.

“Aurora.”

The low rumble of his voice filtered through the water, and I whimpered. I loved how he said my name. I was glad I got to hear it one last time?—

“Aurora.”The arm slung over me shook my shoulder.

I gasped, and my eyes flung open. I wasn’t outside. I wasn’t caught in the storm. And I wasn’t on the verge of drowning.But it was Kit who’d said my name, that much about my fevered dream was real.

I tipped my head, a second passing before his expression crystallized through my glasses. So hard. So stern. But there was something else in his gaze as it raked over my face—the heat I’d felt inthe bathroom was still trapped in his stare like a secret he refused to let out.

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