Page 39 of Ruthless Salvation

Torin grunted.

He guided me on the short walk to my place, and I made it to within twenty feet of my building before my legs quit working. Silly knees went all wobbly like wet noodles.

I clung to Torin’s arm the best I could, but it was no use. My brain couldn’t convince my body to cooperate. Then I was flying in the air the same way I had as a little girl on our swing set in the backyard.

“Whee!” My head tipped back with the motion, then righted itself, my blurry gaze attempting to focus on the most breathtaking blue eyes I’d ever seen. A rich aqua that somehow shone at night just as brilliantly as during the day. Like aTwilightvampire. And he was strong enough, too. Oh, wow. Maybe hewasa vampire. Except that scar on his eyebrow wouldn’t be possible. I loved that scar. It made him look rugged. Just the right balance of pretty and masculine.

Torin huffed. It sounded kind of like a laugh. What was funny? I didn’t say anything. Or did I?

I closed my eyes to try to think, but instead, it just made time skip.

One blink, we were at my front door.

Two blinks, and I was cuddling beneath the covers in my bed.

There were no more blinks after that.

* * *

Wakingup with a headache was the worst. It took the phrase “waking up on the wrong side of the bed” to another level. When your head hurt, it felt like losing the race before it even began.

I groaned as I recalled how I’d been drugged by a slimy jerk who I actually had the nerve to feel sorry for. Now that my skull was trying to crack open like an Easter egg, I wasn’t so forgiving.

“You’ll probably want to drink as much water as possible today.”

My eyes shot open at Torin’s voice in my bedroom, the midday sun shooting tiny lasers into my retinas. “You’re here.”

“I am. I didn’t want to leave you alone after being drugged.” His voice sounded like it had been roasted over hot coals, making me wonder if he’d slept at all. “Do you remember what happened?”

“Yeah, mostly.” I paused, reconsidering. “Up until we got to my building. That’s all pretty fuzzy.” I sat upright to see Tor where he sat in the loveseat that made up the entirety of my living room furniture. He looked like hell, though I suspected I looked worse.

I did my best to smooth back my hair as Blue Bell curled up in my lap.

“You have a cat.” He didn’t sound amused.

I bit back a smile. “I do. His name is Blue Bell.”

Torin’s eyes surveyed my ceiling briefly before circling around to where tufts of white hair covered his charcoal shirt. He swiped halfheartedly at the fur before giving up.

“Thank you … for helping me.”

My brain could hardly process how I felt—the man who’d been stalking me had saved me from being assaulted. I couldn’t account for what had happened after I’d gotten home, but for some inexplicable reason, I wasn’t worried. It was utter madness, but I felt safe with Torin here. I’d wanted to trust him from the beginning. Ihadtrusted him, in a way. But my instincts hadn’t served me well in the past.

Anyone with half a brain would be scared of a man who did the things Torin did. He was dangerous, no question about it. But was he dangerous toward me?

God, I hoped not.

My enigmatic boss slowly unfolded from the loveseat and stretched tall before helping himself to the fridge. He poured two glasses of filtered water, bringing one to me and downing the other in a single go. “Painkillers?” he asked.

“Medicine cabinet.” I motioned toward the bathroom.

He brought me two pills and waited until I’d downed them. “I’ve taken you off the schedule until Friday so you have plenty of time to recover. Now that I know you’re okay, I’ll let you get some rest.”

“Tor?”

He paused, looking back.

“How did you know?”

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