Page 250 of Ruin Me Gently

My stomach dropped.

Wide-eyed. Lips parting. Flinching.

Fuck.

FUCK.

Her body tensed, her breath hitched, her fingers curled just slightly against the doorframe.

I hadn’t touched her, but that didn’t matter.

Because too many people already had.

She was soaked to the bone. Her shirt clinging to every curve, water dripping from the ends of her hair. Her skin was littered with goosebumps, her whole body shaking.

What the hell had she been doing?

I needed to go to her, touch her, make her warm, make her safe.

“Lilith,” I breathed, already pushing back from the desk, stepping toward her, hands raised, already apologising, but the look she gave me stopped me dead.

She gave me a sharp, sadistic smile, all teeth, her tongue pressed to them like she was biting back something. But her eyes—fuck.Her eyes were as wet as her clothes.

Guilt hit me like a hammer to the ribs.

I fucked up.

“Lilith,” I said quickly, the words tripping over themselves in my throat. “I’m so fucking sorry, I’m just—”

“Stressed out?” she finished for me, her voice sharp as glass. “Yeah. I know.”

I couldn’t move.

She was stood there, dripping onto the floor, teeth clattering as she shivered.

“Why are you drenched?” I asked.

“I had a nightmare, asshole. I needed air. I went to the roof.”

“In a damn storm!?”

“Nope. You don’t get to be pissed with me right now you fucking ass.”

I needed to do something.

“Lilith, please.” My voice was rough, desperate. “Let me help you. Let me dry you off, get you warm—”

“I don’t think so.”

“Lilith—”

“No,” she snapped. “You don’t get to ‘Lilith’me right now. You don’t get to look at me and act like you give a shit, when you’ve spent the last few weeks acting like I don’t even exist.”

My jaw clenched. “That’s not—”

“That’s not what?!” She threw her arms out, flinging droplets of water onto the floor. “Not true? Not what I think? Then enlighten me, Silas. Explain it to me.”

She was shaking. From anger, from the cold—I didn’t fucking know. All I knew was that this was spiralling, and I needed to get control of it. Right now.

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