Page 54 of Stalking Wendy Darling

Her eyes shone when I looked up at her, making no attempt to rise from where I knelt before her. I would kneel all night if it made her happy.

“Wendy,” I rasped, conscious of activity all around us, the two of us still in the centre of all that movement. Her fingers stroked along my jaw, so gentle that my heart seized in my chest. “If you pull a stunt like that again, if you make me believe you’re dead, I’ll kill you myself.”

She sighed, her eyes closing. “Oh, I missed this.”

“Me threatening to kill you?”

Her smile settled deeper into her cheeks. Her hands found my shoulders, pulling me to my feet until her head tipped back so she could meet my eyes. “All of it,” she replied.

My whole world narrowed to the way her thumbs skated across my shoulders, a caress that stabbed deep. I angled my head towards the stairs in a silent order, trying to look at every part of her, to see everything she hid beneath too-big clothes and a wicked smile.

I didn’t let even a shadow slip between us as she followed my silent command, striding across the deck like she owned it. My heart swelled painfully, threatening to explode like a grenade.

I watched her descend into the belly of the Banshee, assessed the way she shifted her weight, carrying herself with a delicateness I hadn’t witnessed from her even with a gunshot wound in her shoulder.

She froze halfway down the hallway to my room. Our room. I halted with her, watching her like a hawk as she peered over her shoulder at me. “Did you just growl at me?”

“Inside the cabin,” I ordered, my control rapidly slipping its leash, letting the storm of emotion out where I couldn’t hide it.“Now,Wendy.”

She defied me, because of course she did, rolling onto her tiptoes and masking her pain as she kissed a spot under my jaw. Sharp, prickling sensation swept through my body, shuddering down my spine.

Not yet.I wouldn’t lose control until I saw what she was hiding from me.

I trembled when she finally opened the door to the cabin. I knew her inside out, knew every movement of her body by heart. Pain wrote itself across every muscle and line of her. Andthatwas why I would not lose control.

Someone had hurt my woman. It wasn’t enough that they were dead. The entire world would pay for this.

“Show me,” I ordered, closing the door softly behind us.

Her sigh stripped all the armour from her, her shoulders tightening, jaw clenching with pain, nostrils flaring. It was a beautiful thing to see her trust, but I’d have loved it under any other circumstance.

“Are you bleeding?” I asked, striding to the basin in the corner, already wetting a cloth.

“Just… in a few places.” Her reply was tentative and small. My chest pulled tight.

She hovered in the middle of the room, her fingers knotted in front of her. In the loose clothes she wore, there was no sign of injury.

“Take this off, darling,” I said, my voice softening unconsciously as I closed the distance between us. The watery light coming through the window was unforgiving; I spotted a bruise on her neck that made me see red.

Wendy’s jaw clenched, and I sensed her argument, her instinct to hide any weakness.

“Let me take care of you,” I pleaded, barely louder than a whisper. “Wendy. Please.”

Surprise brightened her eyes, followed by understanding. “It’s not pretty.”

My hand clenched around the cloth, sending drips of water to the floor. I took a tight breath. “Show me.”

She wet her lips, scraping her teeth across her bottom lip, and shrugged out of the jacket, pulling the loose shirt beneath over her head too quickly. Tears sprang to her eyes, her breath catching and freezing, and she curled into herself as the shirt fell to the floor. I caught the back of her head, lowering my face to kiss her crown, dragging the scent of her into my lungs. Familiar warm honey and wine and floral musk, but sharpened by an astringent scent that enraged me. Someone had hurt her. My woman. My Wendy.

“Remember when you accused me of being a witch because I’d bewitched you?” she asked, her voice rough with emotion. I drew back an inch to wipe the tears from her cheeks, getting lost in those stormy eyes. “I think you must be one, too.”

My thumb skimmed her cheek of its own accord. “Remember when you said bringing me the heads of my enemies would be a declaration of love?”

“I meant it.” Her lips curled slightly. “I’ve met a lot of people, Kingston. None like you. I’m afraid I might be obsessed with you.”

My heart seized. “The feeling is mutual, darling.” I bowed my head again, dragging more of her scent into my lungs. “Itkilledme when I thought I’d lost you.”

“I would have come back sooner, but…” She waved a hand down her body and something inside me froze at the reminder she was injured.No.When I drew back, staring at the welts across her chest, the circular burns down her stomach, andacross her side, there was no way the wordinjurycould apply to this.

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