Chapter 16
Phoebe
* * *
“I’m sorry,” I said for the tenth time. And still he said nothing to chastise me.
He just shrugged and sat opposite me. He’d built a small fire to warm me and given me blankets to wrap up in after I changed out of my wet clothes.
I hadn’t given my usual protest because I knew that, not only was I in the wrong, but that I put both our lives in danger.
I’d acted irresponsibly and deserved whatever abuse he had brewing for me.
His usually neat hair was all messed up, but it added to the cool edge he displayed. I was sure I looked like a drowned rat.
“Are you seriously not going to make some comment about my actions?” I asked, pulling the blanket closer to my neck. Although it wasn’t cold, the late afternoon brought a slight chill on the edge of the wind.
Tai leaned forward and brought his hand up to his chin, running his fingers over the slight shadow of his beard. I took a moment to look at him properly and absorb the perfect angles of his face.
Those rich, warm eyes beamed at me with a hint of a sparkle. Those high cheekbones and his chiseled jaw captivated me like always. He looked like someone had sculpted him that way, perfect. And he knew it. Men like him always knew it.
“What do you want me to say, Phoebe?” He raised a brow.
“Something. I don’t know which is worse, the you that talks and irritates me to no end or the silent you that’s just sitting there looking.”
“Okay, Princess Phoebe, you should have listened to me blah, blah, blah.” He chuckled.
I drew my brows together and grimaced. “That’s a lame telling off.”
“Can’t I just be grateful you didn’t die? Or even better that this time you hurt yourself it seriously wasn’t my fault. Although you are somehow accident prone.”
I frowned. “I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “Unbelievable.”
“Last night I forgot to mention that the year after you broke your arms and leg you came back the year after just to break other leg.”
“Tai you told me to jump in the creek.” He was talking about that.
“Phoebe, I specifically told you to wait for the signal to jump but you jumped in anyway.”
“You did give me the signal. You waved your hand, I remember.”
“I was telling you to wait. Then you told everyone how I tried to kill you.”
“I was fourteen.” I was sure that was no excuse. Fourteen was a good age to have sense. I was just a girl who couldn’t help herself around the super-hot Tai.
“And you sneaked away from your mother’s bosom to hang out with me.”
I just stared at him and tried not to laugh but failed. “My mother’s bosom?”
He nodded. “She guarded you like the alien queen guarded her spawn, and I was just the innocent victim. Can I point out that you sneaked off again today?”
“You think my mother was like the alien queen?”
He made atskingsound. “Really? You’re asking me that? In my book she is the alien queen.”