Page 59 of Locked In Ice

“I named him,” she admitted, a bit sheepishly.“And…I have a bird feeder outside.One of the reasons he comes each morning.He has to arrive early because he knows I let Velma out later.”

He had no clue who Velma was.And he didn’t ask in that instant because he was too busy staring into her eyes.

Ophelia bit her lower lip.“I should have gone back to my room.”

No, you should have stayed exactly where you are.

Her lashes flickered.“Why are you looking at me like that?”Hesitant.Confused.

“How am I looking at you?”Like he wanted to eat her up?Guilty as charged.

But she didn’t answer.Ophelia rolled from the bed.Stood quickly.

Naked.With the light spilling through the glass balcony doors, he could see her perfectly.Every gorgeous inch and— “What.The.Fuck?”He leapt out of bed and didn’t care that he was naked, too.In a flash, he was at Ophelia’s side.His hands slid over the long slash on the lower left side of her back.“Who did this?”Rage boiled.But his touch was feather light as he studied the scar.Too dangerous.Too close to her spine.

“I told you that a man came at me with a knife on my sixteenth birthday.”

In the alley.And her boyfriend had been killed protecting her.The moment that had made Ophelia want to become a hunter.

“Joseph shoved me out of the way, but the man with the knife was too close.He sliced with his knife even as Joseph was trying to get me to safety.”Her head craned as she looked over her shoulder.“I didn’t even realize I’d been cut until the EMTs arrived.I thought all of the blood was from Joseph.”

Sixteen.She could have died in that alley.And he suddenly wished he could find her sixteen-year-old boyfriend and tell the kid what a fucking hero he’d been that night.

But the dead were gone.

“It’s okay.It was a long time ago.”

His head lifted.His eyes met hers.

She sent him her big smile.“No pain anymore.I promise, I healed from it.”

No, she hadn’t.He’d heard the pain in her voice when she talked about the attack and the boy she’d loved and lost.

“Yours doesn’t hurt either, does it?Not anymore,” Ophelia added.

He didn’t care about his scar.

His fingers trailed over the line on her back once more.Then his hand slid over her hip as he moved to stand in front of her and…What the hell?“Fuck, Ophelia!”

Another scar.One he hadn’t seen or felt because it was about two inches away from her right hip.He frowned at that scar.Considered what could have caused it and knew it must have been… “Who the hell shot you?”

Her hand caught his.He hadn’t even realized that he’d moved to stroke the old bullet wound.But her fingers stilled his touch.“Told you about that one already, too.”

“I would have remembered you telling me you wereshot.”His gaze lifted to pin her.“Hard to forget a detail like that.”And he tended to be detail oriented.Especially, he was discovering, where Ophelia was concerned.

“I told you that Sam broke into my house, and I was able to kill him before he could kill me.”

Her silken fingers still rested against him.His fingers pressed to her scar.A bullet wound.“You neglected to mention he got off a shot.”An important point to add.

“He was already falling because of my shot, so his aim was off.”Her head tilted as she looked down at the scar a bullet had left on her.“Not a big deal.No pain at all now.”

He caught her chin.Tilted her face up toward him even as his head dipped toward hers.His mouth stopped just an inch away from her lips.“You are a liar.”And he’d thought she hadn’t wanted lies.

Her head shook.“I’m not.”

“Baby, you can’t fool me.”His mouth feathered over hers.“It still hurts on the inside.Still twists you up and gives you nightmares.You go back there, over and over again in your head, and you hate what he did.The pain echoes through you no matter what you do.”

Her hand released his.“Now who is doing the profile?”A whisper against his mouth.

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