Page 54 of You Only Love Twice
"No choice."
"I amwearinga dress," she hissed. "Do you have any idea how heavy—"
"Don't scream." Obsidian slammed a hand between her breasts, and Gemma lurched off the edge of the circular hole. Arms windmilling, she caught a scream behind her teeth and plunged into the darkened well.
She slammed into a sheet of water, plummeting like a stone. Bubbles streamed from her mouth, and she clawed toward the surface.
An enormous shadow smashed into the water beside her, sending her rocking from the impact.
Gemma surfaced with a gasp, her skirts threatening to drag her under again. Kicking hard, she struggled to keep her head above water. Panic bloomed within her. Drowning was the one fear she owned.
Water closed over her head as her body plunged beneath the frigid waters of the Griboedov River. She'd smashed through the thin layer of ice on the surface, the shock of cold water stealing her breath in a gasp of bubbles until her lungs were flooding with it, drowning her....
She caught a mouthful of water now, her throat closing as she spat desperately. Gemma panicked.
"I've got you." Strong hands captured her shoulders, and then Obsidian hauled her against him. "Shhh, Gemma. We cannot afford to make a sound."
Shh?
Shh?
Gemma clung to him, her lungs heaving. "I am going to kill you when we're out of this mess."
But her fingers tangled in his wet shirt, and her heart beat a sharp staccato in her chest, belying the firmness of her voice.
His arm snagged around her waist as he hauled her out of the circle of light that was painted on the inky waters. With her skirts dragging at her body, she felt shockingly vulnerable. If he released her, she'd eventually vanish beneath this unknown depth.
"Don't let me go," she gasped.
Obsidian's pale gaze locked on hers as if he'd finally sensed some of the turmoil hidden beneath her cool expression.
A spillway hovered under a stone arch, water pouring through it. This was how the levels had split. It sucked the pair of them toward it.
Obsidian kicked them beneath the faint overhang of the tunnel, pressing them both against the bars there. His hand rubbed circles on her back, as the other clung to one of the bars. "I won't ever let you go," he breathed in her ear. "Now, be quiet."
Gemma sucked in a sharp sob and simply pressed her head to his chest.
Difficult to stop her legs from thrashing in the wet cage of her skirts. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been forced to rely upon someone else. Or trusted them enough to do so.
Malloryn, perhaps, but then he'd earned her undying loyalty when he pulled her from the Griboedov and resuscitated her.
Now?
She had no choice.
It had nothing to do with the sound of Obsidian's voice, so like the Dmitri she remembered. Nothing to do with the familiar touch of his hands. Love had betrayed her all those years ago. She couldn't afford to trust in it again, ensnared in a dream that had never existed.
Footsteps splashed through the tunnel above them. Obsidian's grip on her tightened, and Gemma returned the embrace, trying to slow her racing heart.
The pair of them barely dared breathe, locked together under the overhang of the grate.
"Any sign of them?" someone called in a low voice.
"No. He cut the bleedin' tracker out of his head."
"Hell. What are we going to tell Ghost?" The splashing sounded like it was growing distant. "This is three times she's escaped death."
"Aye, well, she had help the first couple."
