Page 26 of The Sinner's Bargain

CHAPTER EIGHT

NAYA

I bolted upright, chased into reality by nightmares of bloody stumps and bullet holes. The gasp in my throat wheezed out jagged and sharp, but it echoed with all the desperation locked up in my chest. My heart hammered, a deafening crack of panic that reverberated through my skull, agitating the sharp spears of pain cobwebbing across my crown.

I moaned, hand flying up to touch the goose egg protruding from the back of my skull.

“Easy, love,” came the deep, guttural growl from the shadows. “You hit your head pretty hard.”

My gaze jumped to the blurry outline of a giant folded into a chair near the foot of my bed. “Where am I?” My fingers twisted into the sheets puddled in my lap. “Who are you?”

“I think you know.”

Taylen’s butchered and lifeless body popped into my head, unwarranted and brutal. “You killed Taylen.”

“I did,” said the shadow, with a hint of an accent I hadn’t picked up before.

I dampened my lips with an equally dry tongue. “Why?”

“I have a low tolerance for cowards who put their hands on a woman.”

I blinked. “You killed him for me?”

“No, darling, I took his hand for touching you. I killed him because he came onto my property and I’m possessive of what’s mine.”

My cotton mouth increased, even as I swallowed sharply. “Are you going to kill me, too?”

“I haven’t decided.”

It probably wasn’t the wisest decision to take my eyes off the very large, very dangerous threat only mere feet away, but I found my attention drifting to the sturdy four poster bed with heavy, velvet drapes and the patchwork of navy and black shadows concealing everything past the bed. The only light came from the ornate lamp on my right. A blessing.

“I’m sorry for...” my apology faltered when I glanced down at the black t-shirt draped over me like a tent soaked in the musky scent of wilderness, spices, and leather. “Where are my clothes?”

“They were wet.”

That made sense. I remembered the cutting drizzle of rain and ice plastering the fabric to my skin.

“Did you take them off me?” I asked tentatively, mortified by the mere thought of a perfect stranger undressing me.

I could have sworn I heard a chuckle from my companion. “Well, I wasn’t about to let anyone else do it.”

The skin on my cheeks warmed even as I slowly drew the sheets higher to my chest. It was pointless, I knew. He’d already seen ... everything. Hiding now was redundant.

“I was a gentleman,” he said as if reading my thoughts.

Meaning that he hadn’t looked? Hadn’t touched? I couldn’t bring myself to ask.

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