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They exchanged a glance that I didn’t understand. “Go into the back. I’ll bring you something to wear while I clean your clothes.”
Kellan didn’t bless us with a look backward. He stalked out of the room, leaving us alone.
“He hurts,” Fern whispered.
I looked over at her. “What do you mean?”
She patted her chest softly. “He hurts in here.”
Fern continued to eat. I felt my stomach balling into knots. The urge to go check on him grew. The coward inside of me said to leave him alone. He wanted to see his wife, and I wasn’t her.
I was the job.
The bounty.
The girl he was saving because he’d said yes.
Ernest ushered him clothing into the back and shut the door on his way out. His gaze swept the room and landed on me. “Do you feel your body?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, sir. I felt connected to her at first, but it faded.”
“She blew dust into your face?”
“Yes.”
He walked over to my body and placed his palm inches above my skin, lowering it over the length of me. “Do you remember how she made it?”
I shrugged. “She used one of those molcajete things that you have on your table.”
Ernest walked into a small closet that looked like a pantry and came back with ingredients. Fern shifted on her chair. “What are you doing, Mr. Ernest?”
“Just theorizing, Fern,” he said.
She shrugged at me then glanced over at the hallway. Kellan stood there in the shadows in a pair of sweats and a white T-shirt.
My mouth dried slightly. Keeping thoughts out of my head was impossible. I didn’t know how Kellan did it so well. Even then, when his gaze shifted toward mine, there was nothing.
On the other hand, I was humiliated at the thoughts running around in my head. I sounded like a horny sixteen-year-old that couldn’t help herself. I couldn’t stop admiring his hands and how I wanted his fingers in my hair ...
Kellan closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
The way his fingers curled into fists, and he propped one forearm against the edge of the wall for balance, almost made me think he was having trouble standing.
Then he jerked his head toward Ernest and avoided my stare. I grabbed Fern’s empty plate from the edge of her knee and walked them into the kitchen. Ernest mumbled to himself, scratching his head and pacing back and forth while he smashed something into the stone.
Sliding the bowls into the sink, I glanced out at his backyard. The sunlight was high in the sky, showcasing all of the thick brush and landscape.
A swift movement deeper in the woods caught my attention.
I narrowed my eyes and leaned closer toward the window to see. Strong hands gripped both of my elbows from behind me. Kellan’s breath slid along my neck, making my thighs weaken to rubber.
For a brief moment, I thought he would lean in and whisper something dark into my ear.
The heavy pressure of him against me made a moan form in my throat.
He was touching me. The spirit me.
An overwhelming sense of pathetic need pooled in my stomach. It was the first time in my life I reacted so boldly to a man.
