Page 59 of Shadow Bound

The only reprieve I’ve gotten from him all day is when I slipped away to take a shower and get ready for bed.

The oversized T-shirt is just over my head when the door to the guestroom I’m staying in opens. Tugging it down over my hips and thong, I frown at the intruder. “Are you lost, Ransom? What are you doing in here?”

He wears nothing but a pair of low hung gray sweatpants that do something funny to my tummy when I look at him in them. I find myself taking a step back because the sudden urge to go to him—to run my hands down his sculpted chest is strong. I found myself well acquainted with that body and I’m craving more of his strong, sensual touches. For a moment there, in the back of his truck, I didn’t feel so cold—mentally and physically—his touch warmed more than just my ice-cold body. He melted some of the ice that is around my heart and soul. And then I’d gone and frozen myself over again by lying to him.

It’s the right thing to do, I remind myself again, but I’m even having trouble believing myself now.

“Not lost, I’m sleeping in here,” he announces, closing the door behind him.

“Like hell you are.” My hands that had been busy pulling my hair into a high ponytail freeze. “I don’t do sleepovers.”

He rolls those beautiful blue eyes at me. “Like you’ve ever had a sleepover.”

Tying my hair securely up, I scowl at him. “You’re not sleeping in here.”

“Ryker told me to watch you and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

“Technically you volunteered for the job,” I remind him. “No one is making you do this.”

“I’m the one who brought you here, it’ll be on me if anything happens.”

This makes me go rigid. “Youactuallythink that I’m going to hurt your family?” Up until this point, Ransom is the only person that’s ever looked at me as something other than a killer. Not once has he seemed worried or scared of me. The pain in my stomach increases at this change of events. Before him, I liked when people feared me, it meant that I was playing the role I was given believably—that no one was seeing behind the mask I wore. Ransom saw behind it immediately.

He shrugs his bare shoulders, his muscles flexing. “I don’t know, Beau. Every time I think I have you figured out and I know what you’re thinking you go and fucking change on me. I can’t keep up anymore.”

I bristle at his tone. “Maybe you don’t know me as well as you like to think you do.” If he’s going to be a jerk, I can too.

“Maybe I don’t.”

He moves toward the bed, but I halt him by throwing up my hand. “Not happening. You want to play watch dog? That’s fucking fine with me. It’s nothing I’m not used to.” With Sterling, someone was watching or observing everything I did. The facilities Sterling has scattered around the country are covered in cameras and sensors. While on missions and jobs, someone was always watching my every move. I may have been one of Sterling’s soldiers, but Nessa and him never really trusted me. “But you’re not sleeping in the bed with me.” With an angry smirk, I chuck a pillow from the bed onto the floor. It’s quickly followed by a blanket that had been decoratively placed at the foot of the bed. “Sleep tight, don’t let the fleas bite.”

His nostrils flare and his eyes flash with anger. He came in here with an attitude, I don’t know why he’s surprised I’m throwing it back in his handsome face.Fuck. Why does he affect me so much?

Ransom doesn’t move, he stands glaring at me.The Weylyn men and their glares tonight. “Dude, you can stand there and glower at me all night, but I’m tired and I don’t feel well. I need to sleep.” Since when do I saydude? Remi and Winslow are already rubbing off on me.

His dark brows pinch. “You don’t feel good? Are you hungry again?” The pissed-off look he’d been wearing all day slips away, and the Ransom I’d gotten to know in Colorado is back.

“No, I don’t know what’s wrong. I think it’s just my body trying to re-acclimate to having blood again. It happened before, but it went away,” I reassure him. I pull the comforter down from the bed and slip underneath. Ransom’s eyes scan over my bare legs, the T-shirt I wear only hitting the top of my thighs. My skin warms as his eyes caress me.

Shaking it off, he blinks at me. “Let me know if it continues, I can have Dr. V or even Esme check you out. She’s a high priestess, but she’s the most knowledgeable person I’ve ever met. She knows everything about every species, I don’t know how she keeps it all straight.”

“I’m part vampire, Ransom. I don’t get sick. No need to call a doctor or your witch friend.” Esme is also Winslow’s aunt, I’d learned that when doing my research months back. Esme’s sister Amara had been taken by Sterling and used in his breeding program. Like many of the women that are taken, she didn’t make it out alive.

“Fine,” he snaps. “I was just offering to help.”

Tilting my head, I frown at him. “I know, I appreciate the offer, but I’m okay.”

With a grumble, he snatches another pillow off the bed and goes to where I’d thrown the other bedding on the floor. Without another word, he makes an uncomfortable looking bed on the floor. I can’t see him when he lies down, but I hear him. The steady beat of his heart acts as a lullaby as I begin to fall asleep. I hate to admit it, but I actually fall asleep faster with him near.

I don’t know how long I doze off for, but at some point, I wake up. The room is still dark, and the sound of Ransom’s heavy breathing fills the room. I lie there for a while, listening to his breathing. Without putting too much thought into it, not wanting to talk myself out of it, I toss back the covers and climb out of bed. Pulling the comforter off the bed, I bring it with me to the end of the bed where he sleeps on the floor.

Ransom looks so peaceful when he sleeps. He appears younger too, without the laid-back smirk on his face like it usually is. Instead his mouth is held in almost a pout. He lies on his back, one hand on his chest, the other arm thrown out wide on the carpet.

Dropping down onto the floor beside him, I pull the comforter over us and crawl into his side. Using his arm as a pillow with my back to his side, I’m instantly engulfed by his warmth and intoxicating scent.

I know the second he’s awake because his body stiffens slightly, but quickly relaxes. Without a word, he turns on his side so he’s spooning me, his other arm wrapping around my middle. He pulls me tight against him, like he’s trying to fuse our bodies together.

“You really confuse me, Tink,” he whispers into my ear, his voice gruff with sleep.

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