Page 45 of Bite of Passage
Her head tilted to stare up at him.“That’s kind of weird for him to have that sitting around, don’t you think?”
“He’s a strange devil.How do you know him?What exactly happened while I slept?”
“We chatted together while sitting in the rain.He shared my umbrella.”She shrugged.
What’s an umbrella?
“I feel strangely weak, but for the record, I’m not one of those wimpy girls who needs someone like you to rescue me all the time.I swear this isn’t like me.”She relaxed against him and tucked her head beneath his coat, against his chest.“I’m glad you’re here.You’re a lot less prickly than Cade.That doesn’t mean you’re prickle-free, but at least you’re tolerable.”
His body lit up like the lightning in the far-off sky, energy zipping through his veins and setting him into a frenzy.
“You require rescuing too often,” he grumbled.
“You too,” she volleyed back.“This is the first time I’ve been shot by an arrow.This kind of thing doesn’t happen where I’m from.”Her good arm wrapped around him in a half hug.“Please don’t let me die here.Not before you…”
He glanced down, waiting for her to finish.Her voice had grown hoarse.Her full bottom lip parted from her equally full top lip.Those soulful eyes searched his before settling on his lips.No need to clarify what she meant.
His mind rewound her summary of her time with Cade.He’d kissed her.His damned brother had kissed her.Yet, what tumbled out of him was asinine.“Before what?”
She grunted.“Throw me through the doorway when we get back to your place.I’ll call 911 and get an ambulance to pick me up and take care of this arrow wound.Make sure it’s the right doorway, though.I don’t want to end up in Siberia.Just…don’t bite me without telling me.”
“I’ll take you back to the castle and see if one of the mirrors works.”
ChapterNineteen
Gemma hada vague impression of being in a castle, which couldn’t be true.She had to be hallucinating or still dreaming that she’d gotten stuck inThe Legacy of Magic.What a trippy dream.
She squeezed her eyes shut, reaching hard for wisps of Skarde still lingering in her imagination.She’d dreamed of being against his chest and hearing his heart beating beside her ear over the movement of the horse.His heart had sped up after she stared at his lips.He’d wanted a kiss too.
One kiss that he started couldn’t be too much to ask.One fantasy kiss before she was forced to face reality.
The sound of rain pelting against windows and a crackling fire…Wait a second.There was no fireplace in her one-bedroom apartment.The room smelled like a wood fire.Who still burned wood?Carbon emissions, greenhouse gasses, and all that made it frowned upon.It also smelled likehimin here.She burrowed deeper into the pillows.Comfortable pillows.She recognized these.
Her heart pounded as she pushed up to a sit.And found herself wearing her underwear in Skarde’s bedroom.
There must be a ton of other rooms in the castle, but he’d put her in here, again.Either that meant none of the others were furnished—hard to believe—or he wanted her here.And didn’t that give her a case of stomach jitters mixed with warm fuzzies?
“Great, you’re up,” said Serish.
She yanked the covers up to her chin.“Where’s Skarde?”
“I told him you’d be awake in time for breakfast.”The mage opened the metal over the windows, which showed the setting sun before the covers blocked it out.“Technically, it’s your dinner and his breakfast.I may be old, but my magic still works on human wounds.Check out your arm.I bet it looks almost new by now.”
She rotated her arm.The edges along the arrow puncture on both sides were pink and almost healed, not even scabbed.At home, it would’ve taken two weeks at least to achieve this level of almost-gone.“How long was I asleep?”
He rolled his eyes upward as if calculating while she held her breath.Had she been out for that long?Then he shrugged.“Maybe a day.”
“That’s like a few hours in my world.”She gripped her head.“I had this work meeting about new protocols.Not good that I missed it.”
“I’m sure they’ll manage without you.Here, in this place, you have the job of saving Skarde.That’s much more important.I heard you pulled him up from a cliff.That sounds like fun.I’ll have them bring in the bath for you.I laid out new clothes.They might not be your style, but we need you dressed a bit more…” A mischievous glint entered his eyes.“Feminine.He’s this close to breaking over you, which is fantastic.”He held his forefinger about an inch from his thumb.
“Breaking?What does that mean?”
He threw back his head and laughed.
“Where is he?”she asked.
“Pacing, growling, and having a general conniption about everything.Plucking flower petals.”In a sing-song voice he added, “She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me…”
