Page 28 of Hunted By Wolves and Shadow
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You sure? Your face is starting to match your hair over there, kitten.”
“It is not.”
I stepped toward her. “If I’d known this was all it took to get you to stop hitting me, I’d have taken my clothes off sooner.”
Her breath hitched, but she recovered with admirable speed. “You’re imagining things. I wouldn’t look that way at you if you were the last man alive.”
I gave a pointed look around us, isolated as we were. “How do you know I’m not? We haven’t left this place in nine days. Plenty of time for the world to have gone to the clouds out there.”
“It’s gone clouded in here too,” she muttered.
“Come on, I’m not so bad once you get to know me, am I?” I meant to tease her but it came out borderline needy. “You can’t say you’d rather go back to your awful family than stay and play with me.” There, that was better, though now I had that familiar surge of hatred for her family. Her stories made me so angry, and she barely seemed to know there was anything wrong with it. It was as if she thought she deserved their neglect and belittling. I wanted to show her she was worth more, but I wasn’t the one she wanted that from. I could never be that person to her.
It was a grounding thought to go with the fresh aggression in her glare. I had pushed her too far this time.
“Don’t pretend to know anything about my family, Wolf,” she accused. “Just because we’ve swapped some stories while we’re stuck here doesn’t make us friends. Whatever you think you know about me, you don’t.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“Just stop talking. Every time you open your mouth, you make it worse. You make my head all jumbled and foggy.”
I was probably wrong about a lot of things, but I wasn’t wrong about her family being terrible. That poison garden was evidence enough. But I bit my tongue. Her family didn’t deserve Emi and her irrepressible kindness and curiosity.
I must have been projecting anger in the tension of my muscles, and Emi misinterpreted it. Because of course, she assumed she would be the object of anyone’s frustration.
The pure, swaggering fun I’d been having sparring with Emi dried up in a heartbeat. We’d spent the time moving and feeling and breathing—just existing together in a way that wasn’t so hate-filled for a while. There was no reason for me to think it had changed anything for her, certainly not the direction my own feelings had changed, but I supposed part of me had hoped we could co-exist without this crackling tension.
She rounded on me with fire in her eyes. It was enough to make me want to reach into the flames, not caring that I’d get burned if only I could graze her body with my fingers one time. I fought the wild idea and let her come to me.
Her fists landed together on my chest and my nerves danced at the brief pain and then lingering contact as she left them there.
“I haven’t forgiven you. I haven’t forgotten what you did just because I decided to take advantage of the knowledge you offered. Don’t think this changes things between us, Wolf.”
“I don’t.”
“I am out of here the first heartbeat the Mist lifts, and you’d better be gone if I ever return because I won’t come alone or unarmed. That’s a promise.”
“I know.”
“No, don’t be all understanding about it. I mean it.”
“I know you do.”
“Uhhh. You’re so frustrating.” She bared her teeth, coming close enough that her elbows dropped between us so that her entire forearms pressed into my chest. “Why am I even listening to you?”
My heart stuttered. “Calm down, witchling.”
“Calm down?Calm down!”
I melted back a step in surprise as she pressed into me. Everything in my nature called for me to grab her and flip our positions, crush her to my body, but I resisted the urge and let her do…whatever she was going to do. I deserved her wrath. Maybe it was time to take it.
“Sorry, carry on,” I said with a smirk.
Her outburst was doing inconvenient things to me. Wicked things.
Emi’s hands were flat on my chest now, lifting with each of my quick breaths. Warnings blared in my head as I closed the last bit of distance between our bodies so that we touched everywhere, knees, hips, and chests. I knew she could feel me against her, my desire obvious. She knew what she was doing to me.
