Page 40 of Taken By Raider Kings
No, this was all too real.And Lucy was gone.
“Sophie.”Zach’s hand touched her face, cupped her chin.His fingers were far too hot, almost scorching as the coffee, and that strange, intense smell-sense of safety rippled off him in waves.“How are you feeling?”
Dizzy.Aching.Half-crazy.“Fine,” she mumbled, trying to avoid his eyes.Why am I not terrified?I just saw him… what was that?
He leaned down, his nose a few inches from hers.“You’re pale.”
“I’m fine.”She tried to scoot back on the bed, failed.Coffee slopped.“Just a little tired, that’s all.”
“And probably hungry.”His eyes werekind, she realized.That was the word.Deep, and dark, and very soft.Water beaded on his tanned skin looked like decoration, and the slight curl in his hair made it drop stubbornly over his eyebrow again.Her heart made a funny lurching movement, and she wished he didn’t look so concerned.
“Aspirin, your highness,” Julia said behind him.He held out his free hand, she dropped two tablets in his palm before continuing on her merry way.
The girl didn’t seem fazed in the least about being held down and threatened.
The sense of motion intensified, the door opened, and a burst of chill rain-washed air cut through the musk.
“Here you are.”Zach handed her the aspirin.“We’ll get you something to eat soon.For right now, how about you get dried off?I can’t get cleaned up until you do.There’s only one bathroom.”
Why don’t you use it, then?But her clothes were incredibly sodden and irritating, and the idea of a hot shower just short of heavenly.“All right.”Let go of me, and I will.
But he didn’t.He still cupped her chin, fingers gentle against her cheek, his thumb touching just under her bottom lip.Her skin was still wet as well, and she could feel every single ridge of his fingerprints.She clutched the aspirin in one damp hand, the mug’s handle in the other, and suddenly felt like a huge idiot.
“You’re going to have to let go of me.”Why do I sound breathless?
He nodded slightly, still staring.The same look, like he saw something green on her face, or something.“Yeah.I guess so.”But he still didn’t move.
“I mean it.”She blinked a few times, trying to focus.The faces were clustering behind him, their lips moving, and that reedy cricket-hum became the rattling of copper-bottomed pans.
Sophie flinched, and Zach let go as if burned.He straightened and stepped away, shaking his fingers, and gave her a scorching, unreadable look.
She had to try twice before her body would let her stand upright.Julia was suddenlythere, with a handful of clothes.“God, Zach, give her a minute.She’s soaked.You don’t have to?—”
“Shut up, Julia.”But there was no heat to it.He simply stood, watching her, as Sophie palmed the aspirin up to her mouth and took a throat-scouring mouthful of coffee to get the pills down.
“Jeans.A T-shirt.I found a pair of Keds that might fit you, too.I even got underwear.”Julia tucked her dark hair behind one ear.“About the only thing I didn’t get was a bra, since I don’t know your cup size.But nobody ever died from going braless.Let’s get you dried off and cleaned up and warmed up, and then we’ll?—”
“I’m fine.”Sophie grabbed blindly for the clothes and beat a retreat to the bathroom door while she could.Halfway there she had to brush past Zach, so she looked over her shoulder.Julia looked crestfallen, and in that moment Sophie saw how young she really was.
Christ, I feel old.“Thank you.”The words were ashes in Sophie’s mouth, but the girl brightened.
Then she was past Zach, who stood very still.She swept the bathroom door closed, locked it, and sagged with relief.
The mirror held a pale, half-drowned woman, dark circles under her eyes and every scrap of feeling okay she’d had that morning drained away.She took another gulp of the too-hot coffee, and found a furious heat rising to her cheeks.
Why was he looking at me like that?
And another, more troubling pair of questions.Why did he hold her up against the wall?And why didn’t he hit her afterward?I was sure he was going to.
She didn’t know; that was bad.Sophie didn’t know their rules, but werewolves—or whatever they were—clearly had them.
She had to learn quickly.
eighteen
Zach might’ve feltlucky if she’d actually wanted to sit next to him, but he’d dropped down in the semicircular booth, and with Julia squeezed on her other side, she didn’t have a say in the matter.
“You mean yousteal?” Sophie’s pretty eyebrows drew together, and she pushed a few stray curls out of her face.At least his shaman was taking an interest in things, instead of just going all pale and glaze-eyed.Some food perked her right up, thank God.
