Page 33 of Martyr
I think I missed an important chunk of dialogue.
“What?” I ask, my voice gruff.
“You don’t know who I am?” Kade asks.
Ah. “Well, no.”
He stares at me.Hard. It does weird things to my chest, and it also somehow conjures back up the phantom sensation of his hand gripping the back of my neck.
“You were?—”
“Ready to abscond with you off the island?” I take another sip of the coffee. I’m not convinced Ilikecoffee, but my mouth is dry. “Yeah, dude. Anything to get away from her.”
Artemis bristles.
I don’t really mean it like that. I don’t know why it came out that way.
“Typical Saint,” Reese breathes. “Always talking out his ass.”
I incline my chin.
Kade scoffs. He seems perplexed but also a bit angry.
“I didn’tchooseto have amnesia,” I tell him.
“You did choose to be reckless.” His gaze slides to Artemis. “And you decided to stay here to continue babysitting him?”
Continue?
I open my mouth, but Tem beats me to the punch.
“No, Kade.” Her smile is positively brittle. Patronizing. “I’ve been here getting over the heroin addiction Gabriel forced on me.”
The room goes quiet.
My gaze goes to her hand, the way her nails scratch at her arm over her long-sleeve shirt. Guilt trickles down my spine. I never once asked her why she was on the island with me—I justassumedit was to watch over me. Which, judging by a previous comment, is not unusual.
How long have I been with her?
And I don’t meanwith-with her—I still don’t want to know how I knew her nipples were pierced. I mean, how long has she been stuck with my grumpy ass?
Reese straightens from where he’d been leaning a shoulder on the bookcase when Kade steps closer to Artemis. He’s protective of her, it’s clear to see. From pausing our fight in Lyssa’s room, the way he holds Tem, watches herandwatches out for her… he’s there for her. He cares.
The flash of jealousy I feel is just a momentary setback.
I grit my teeth. There’s a dull ache in the back of my head, a slow pulse that started so faintly, I didn’t notice it until now.
But then Kade takes Tem’s hand in his, and he carefully pushes her sleeve up her arm, past her elbow. He turns her palm up. There are small, dark bruises in the crook of her elbow.
When he coasts his thumb over them, she shudders.
She pulls out of his grasp and yanks her sleeve back into place.
“That’s enough show and tell,” she mutters. Her gaze moves around the room. “How much longer do we need to stay here?”
Kade doesn’t reply. He just stares at her.
The mental image of his hulking, naked body coming out of the ocean floats in my vision, and I choke.
