Page 25 of The Villain

My heart stumbled when he returned, as though his body carried its own charge—a kind of magnetic field that pulsed and drew me toward it—toward him—whenever he got close.

Because I couldn’t see him, the rest of my senses went into overdrive. My skin blanketed with goose bumps. My ears fixed on the heavy tumble of his breaths. The soft flutter of silk in his hands. And the scent of him…my nostrils greedily breathed it in. Drowned in it. All potent and rich. Even my tongue, through my parted lips, could taste its raw masculinity.

And then the cool silk of the mask draped over my eyes. Instinctively, I reached up to adjust it and bumped his hands in the process.

“Sorry,” I murmured, feeling him pull away instantly.

“Don’t apologize.” His order made me shiver.

All Brandon ever wanted from me was apologies. Each of them reminded me what a failure I was to him and how generous it was for him to still love me.

But not Dare. He wanted no apologies. He seemed to want nothing but to take care of me—even if it was at a restrained distance.

“I’m ready.” I pressed the mask gently to my cheeks, making sure it was secure.

“I have your shoes.”

“Oh, right.” I nodded.How could I forget those?

The air moved as he lowered in front of me, and since my hand braced on the wall, it must’ve been the entire world that tipped when his strong hand wrapped around my ankle.God, his skin was so hot.Each of his fingertips was like a small flame where they touched, burning an unspoken ache onto me.

“What happened here?” His deep voice was rough, distracting me until a burst of pain announced the touch of his fingers on my injured calf.

“Is it cut? I didn’t feel blood?—”

“Bruised.”

Breathe, Athena. Just breathe.I coached myself silently, grateful that my eye mask also covered most of my heated cheeks.

I forced myself to swallow. “I ran into the corner of the bed.”

“And here?” He rubbed over the bandage around my big toe.

“Caught my toe on the edge of the shower,” I answered, his sharp inhale piercing the silence a second later.

At that, the questions stopped as he put my sneakers on, my brain foggy and drunk by the timehe was finished.

“Ready,” he grunted low and straightened, bringing a wave of electrified air up my body with him.

I managed one solid breath before large palms cupped my shoulders to guide me forward. And instantly, I was adrift in the darkness.

His nearness disorients me. Even without my sight, my brain tried to map my surroundings as I felt my way through them. The bedroom. The bathroom. The front of the house. It took a lot of focus, and the bruise on my calf evidenced how hard it was, but when something interrupted that focus, it was like the part of hitting a piñata where they spin you around after blindfolding you.

Any direction could be right. Any direction could be wrong.But as long as it was those strong hands that held me, I’d let them lead me anywhere.

One of his hands disappeared, replaced by the sound of a handle turning, the soft glide of a hinge, and then…I inhaled, and his unmistakable sandalwood was replaced with cool, crisp air—the kind that was scrubbed clean by trees and then steeped in salt.

My chest tightened.Freedom.Or as much of it as I could have right now.

“Careful, there’s a lip,” he warned low, guiding me slowly over the doorframe and out onto the distinct softness of earth.

“Are we close to the ocean?” I said between massive breaths; I really underestimated how much I needed some fresh air.

“Yeah.”He led us a few paces forward, and I soaked in every sense of my new surroundings. The earth under my feet. The cool air in my lungs. The slight prickle of sunlight on my skin. The faint taste of salt on my tongue.

We stopped, and the second his hands let go of me, a whipof cold raced along my spine, and I couldn’t stop my body from jolting slightly.

“I’m okay,” I said quickly, somehow sensing he’d seen me shiver and afraid he’d insist we go back inside.

---