Christian’s POV
We wait and wait, but Sara doesn’t wake up. The good news is that her condition doesn’t deteriorate, so my treatment must be working.
“You can go to sleep,” I tell Kai, who is standing at the window. “I’ll watch her.”
“You go to sleep,” he says, “I’ll watch her.”
“No thanks. Look at what happened to her when she was under your care. You go, I’ll stay.”
I’d be reluctant to leave her in his care any other time, but now that I know he has a bond with her? Multiply that reluctance by a hundredfold.
“Shouldn’t you go after that girlfriend of yours and ask her what she fed her?” I suggest. “In case she doesn’t get better and we need to try something else.”
“You said you were confident in your treatment,” he reminds me.
I am. I shrug. “You never know.”
He glares at mehe must know I just want to get rid of him. He steps away from the window. “Fine.” He looks at Sara, then back at me. “Don’t try anything.”
I arch an eyebrow. “Like what, claim her?”
His lips peel back from his teeth in a threat. Damn, I’ve never seen Kai look so fierce. It’s not a lot of fierceness, but still…
“What’s your deal, anyway?” he asks, glowering at me. “She told me you said you didn’t want to mate her.”
“Sounds like she told you a lot of stuff. Since when did you two become such buddies?”
Why is he questioning my motivations? I doubt his are any honourable. Kai doesn’t play around with girls just because he is bored or any hornier than the rest of us.
I don’t know what his real deal is, but some things he has said made it sound like he is settling a score or something. Did some girl shred his heart to pieces in the past?
He leaves without answering my question. I go to the door and lock it. In case he gets back and thinks he is welcome.
I take a seat at the desk in the room and watch her sleep. Her chest rises and falls steadily with every breath. Her face is calm, a little pale, but not too bad.
Was it just last night she was the one tending to me? Last night, when I held her so close, her skin against mine.
I shift uncomfortably in the chair at the sensations the memory sends skittering all over my body. But I can’t do anything about the crazy need that spirals through me every time I’m close to her. Or every time I think of her.
Thislosing control and being at the mercy of fate or biology or whatever people call itis part of why I never wanted a mate.
I don’t need someone else in my life with power over me in any way. My father has got that covered, and it’s suffocating enough.
I shut my eyes. If I don’t look at her, she can’t keep bewitching me. Because I can’t afford to lose my head over this. She is a means to an end. Nothing more.
I must have dozed off at some point because I come to my senses with a jolt. I blink against the bright light in the room, and then my attention is drawn to the bed.
Her eyes are open, and her lips are moving.
I jump to my feet and bend over her to hear what she is saying.
“Cold. So cold.”
She is cold. I instinctively reach for her covers, but I realise she is already using all of them. I feel for her temperature. Her skin is cold to the touch. She is awake, which means the medicine I gave her worked. So why is she still so cold?
“You are so warm,” she mutters. Reaching up, she rests her hand on top of mine, keeping it on her forehead. “So warm.”
Tingles run up my skin at the contact. “I’ll get you a jacket,” I tell her.
She shakes her head. “Hug me.”
“What?”
Her hand moves up my forearm, holds on firmly, and then jerks. I catch myself on my other hand before I go tumbling all over her. “Sara”
“Please.”
Why am I fighting this? She is awake, she is cold, and she is asking me to lend her some body warmth. This is the perfect chance to warm her up to me. She is too guarded the rest of the time. If she feels comfortable around me, it’ll improve my chances of being the one she chooses.
“Okay,” I tell her.
I climb onto the bed and under the covers. I don’t get to settle myself properly before she is all over me, her arms going around my waist and her legs tangling with mine. She buries her face into my chest and makes an appreciative noise.
I go stiff. As stiff as I can go with my heart pounding in my chest and my blood roaring through my veins.
But blood is not the only thing roaring throughout my body. So is lust. Raw, red hot lust. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten hard so fast.
One of her legs ends up between mine. And then, whether intentional or not, I can’t tell, she pulls it up and her thigh brushes against my covered erection.
An image flashes through my mind. Her on her back, me between her legs, my cock deep inside her, taking her so hard while she cries my name.
My body moves and in the next instant, she is beneath me. I take each of her hands and press them to the bed on each side of her head. I wedge one knee between her thighs. “Is this what you want?”
Her brown eyes stare back at me, and the look in them makes me hesitate. The way she is looking at me, I could as well as be asking her whether she wants cream in her coffee or not.
I frown. Is she really awake? Is she aware of what’s going on?
“Sara?”
“Yeah?” Awake enough to hear me and understand me…
“Do you know who I am?”
Her lips tug as if in a smile. “Christian.”
Aware enough to recognise me…
“Closer,” she says, wiggling her body. “I’m still cold.”
Fucking hell.
“Do you know what happened to you?”
“I was at the party. With Kai. And then… And then…” She frowns. “I don’t know what happened.”
She is coherent and remembers what happened.
“You were drugged,” I tell her.
Her eyes pop. “Kai?”
I shake my head. “No.”
She shivers. “Why is it so cold?”
It’s not. Exhibit no. 1: Me, who is about to spontaneously combust from all the fire running in my veins.
She raises one hand and touches my forearm. “But you are so warm.”
I lower my head to her ear, the last of my caution flying away. “I can warm you,” I tell her, “but I can’t promise to keep my hands to myself.” Or other parts of my body, which are dying to be buried so deep inside you you’ll feel it for a week.
Her throat moves as she swallows. “I want you to touch me.”
And then, as if her words are not enough to seal the deal, the scent of her arousal fills my nostrils.
There is no going back.