Page 84 of Fall Into Me

He let that sentence settle between us, and the first thing I wanted to do was roll my eyes. To let his words be more things I didn’t believe. To see them for what they were; another thing to lure me in, promise to keep me safe, and then take it all back when I needed them most.

But I was so. fucking. tired.

I wasn’t this angry, hateful person. And though I felt it, pulsing and alive, that wasn’t all there was to it. Tome.Beneath it, something softer pushed back. Hidden below the surface of that raging storm. Quiet, but full of yearning that was getting harder to ignore.

It spoke like a siren to those furious parts of me. It whispered stories and memories of how it once felt to be held by him. To trust him, even when I knew better now. It was terrifying and tempting all at once.

I hadn’t forgiven him, and I don’t think I’d ever forget what had happened, but like I gave myself the moment in the car, I’d give myself today. I’d let myself pretend everything was okay and that the man standing next to me hadn’t eviscerated me without blinking.

“Two for two, Calista.” Fane’s sounded even huskier with the backing track of the rushing water. “Not bad for free, local tours.”

I rolled my eyes, flipped him off, and tried not to break down completely when he grabbed my hand and placed a kiss to the back of it.

His entire face changed like he hadn’t meant to do that. Like it was muscle memory. A reflex.

“Want to swim?” I asked.

“The wholepack like you’re going to be getting wetthing makes a lot more sense. I thought we were heading to an orgy.” I wasn’t sure if he was being serious or not, but I’d never heard the word “orgy” so many times in one morning as I had today.

The sun was high, shining down on us through the gaps in the canopy. I nibbled on my bottom lip, standing just behind Fane as he pulled off his shirt and headed straight for the water. The moment his toes touched the water, his head whipped over his shoulder. “It’s fucking toasty!”

My grin was unstoppable. “The waterfall comes directly from natural hot springs,” I called back. “They’re a little ways away, so by the time it gets here, it’s more warm than hot, but you can swim here pretty much all year.”

“Cali, this is insane.” He looked starstruck.

“I knew you’d like it.” My words were too soft for him to hear, and at any rate, he’d turned back around, and I watched as the lone, howling wolf on his back disappeared under the water.

He reemerged, flicking his hair up and out of the way and the most intoxicating look on his face. He was almost completely submerged, his eyes just above the water while he waited for me to make a decision.

This is such dangerous territory.

The words kept falling into my brain, and I was constantly slap-fighting them away, but never more so than right when I pulled my dress up and over my head and made my way into the water, aware of every single inch of the skin on my body while Fane drank me in like a man starved. Like he’d never been so close to everything he could ever want but was forced to keep his distance.

That’s how Fane looked at me. Like I was his, and even though I knew I wasn’t, I walked into the water and let myself pretend with that too.

27

Calista

After

I knew what stepping into the water meant.

There had been a question in Fane’s eyes while he watched me take step after step toward the water, the rest of his face lifting out of the clear pool, taking me in hungrily.

Where I knew he hadn’t taken his eyes off me once, I hadn’t been able to keep mine on him.

I suddenly felt so incredibly stupid. I’d just strutted my ass into the water with confidence coming out the wazoo, and now all I really wanted was to turn around and haul ass out of there.

Everything with Fane, like it had been from the moment I saw him standing in Sunshine, was too much and not enough. I wanted to be impossibly closer to him, and I wanted to be so far away that there would never be a chance of crossing paths with him again for the rest of my life.

Both of those options turned my stomach for different reasons.

I’d made it all the way into the water, the water meeting my waist in the center where he stood. I was honest to God, vibrating. Despite the temperature of the water, my teeth started to chatter. I sunk them into my bottom lip, pressing down and trying to keep my eyes on the way my hand was gliding along the surface and not at how I saw ripples coming from behind me.

Not at the body I felt rise from the water, the heat blazing off him that had nothing to do with the natural springs.

“Calista.” I felt his voice everywhere. Just the idea of him made me clench my thighs together.

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