Page 140 of Mama Si's Paradise

“I heard that little skipped beat,” he said with a boyish grin.

Oh, hell…I

forced a smile on my lips.It wasn’t because of you.

“How about you tell me what it’s like out there,” I said in barely a whisper because my thoughts were going to drive me insane for real, and the day hadn’t even started yet. “Tell me about the mountain you were on. Tell me about what you used to do as a kid. What you liked. Just talk to me.” When he did, I’d listen. I’d focus only on him, not on that image. Not on Grey.

Not on what was coming tomorrow.

Valentine raised his brows. “What I used to do as a kid?”

“Mhmm. I want to hear all of it no matter how lame or how cringeworthy. I want to know you.” And maybe someday,if we remained friends, I’d tell him all the lame and cringeworthy things about me, too.

He chuckled. “Sure thing.”

“Start from the beginning.”

Valentine didn’t hesitate. “There are three mountains in the Whispering Woods. The biggest is far south, on the other side of this castle, called Mount Erid…”

The more he spoke, the more I forgot about the world around me. The more he told me about the bears and the cougars and the other animals, the families of Skinwalkers who lived at the edges of the mountain, the clearer my head became. The more he told me about the game of cards he used to playwith himselfwhen he was a kid, the better my mood.

We only talked for about an hour before Lucinda came to get me for breakfast, but it helped a great deal. And even though Valentine didn’t join us in the dining room—he was in desperate need of a shower and a change of clothes—I was already feeling a lot more like myself than I had the past two days while I’d been consumed by Grey.

At that point I still didn’t really realize how very,veryscrewed I was.

But I would find out soon enough.

Thirty-Three

He was watchingme from the other side of the hallway like a fucking hawk.

Light eyes and thick brows narrowed, hair perfectly disheveled, a new unripped shirt covering his wide shoulders—and I cursed myself a million times for leaving my room for lunch. I should have stayed inside. Who needed food? I certainly didn’t, not when Grey Evernight was waiting for me right near the corner that led to the dining room, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on me.

Just when I’d decided that I was going to keep away from him no matter what. Just when I’d decided to spend all my time in my room when Valentine wasn’t around, he finally came for me.

He was going to make me go with him to wherever he wanted to take me, and he was going to make me talk to him and drink with him and walk with him—no.

Not when he scared me shitless—for all kinds of fucked up reasons. Not when I’d thought about him as much as I had since that night.

Stupid curiosity.

Instinct took over. I turned around and walked back to where I came from, around the corner and toward the stairway of the fifth tower.

Please, please, please?—

“Stop.”

I stopped dead in my tracks like someone had pressed pause on my body. Grey’s voice, thick and dark, filled my ears and sent ice-cold chills all over me. Fuck, the way my heart was tripping all over itself…

Closing my eyes, I focused on breathing, on slowing my heartbeat as much as I could while he came closer.

Before the minute was over, Grey was in front of me, looking down at me like I was both his favorite snack and a deadly threat to his life.

My control flew out the window.

“Are you running from me, Fall?”

Oh, God… “No,” I forced myself to say. “I’m actually not feeling well. I was just going back to my room.”

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