He halts, his body turning toward me as he speaks. “I’m not wrong, princess. You disobeyed my orders, you put yourself and Sig at risk, not to mention those of us that would have had to come get you if they had captured you.”
“He’s a child! He’s barely older than Fin! He could have died, and I wasn’t going to let that happen. You would have helped him too, just like you helped me. You wouldn’t have done nothing and just let him die. I know you wouldn’t have, because despite everything that I’ve been told, deep down you’re not the monster you’ve been made out to be.”
“It’s different with you.” He brushes past my declaration like my changing beliefs about him are the most meaningless thing in the world.
“Why is it different with me?” I snap.
“Because I’m responsible for you.”
“You’re responsible for every one of us, yet you clearly treat me differently. I’m the only one that gets yelled at for facing the dangers out there. I’m not fucking breakable!”
He steps forward, gesturing at my bandaged arm. “Clearly, you are. You were reckless. No one else comes back to my ship having put themselves in danger.”
“Every time we leave this ship we put ourselves in danger.”
“You let your guard down!” he yells, throwing his arm up wildly toward the beach. “I told you to never let your guard down. That girl shouldn’t have been able totouchyou with all your training, yet here you are, wounded and bleeding on my watch.”
“She threw a knife at myback, Weston. What did you expect me to do?”
His eyes fly to mine at the use of his name, and I flinch, surprised myself at how easily it slipped out.
He looks away again, his face sobered, the wild anger from moments ago hidden away back under the stern facade of the captain.
His voice is dangerously low. “You’re off shift duties until I say so.”
Turning abruptly, he stalks back toward the steps, but I chase after him.
“You can’t do that! You can’t just trap me here!”
“It’s my ship princess, I can do whatever the fuck I want.”
All the old feelings of being trapped in the castle, hidden away and isolated from the world, come rushing back, and I doeverything to stomp them down. I won’t let him do that to me, not here, not without an explanation.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
“To keep you safe!” he yells over his shoulder.
“Bullshit! Stop being a coward and tell me the real reason!”
An angry growl erupts as he spins back toward me, and before I can even process his change in direction, his hands wrap around my face and his lips crash into mine.
My mind is a blank void.
The fight.
The pain.
The chaos.
It’s all gone.
There’s only Weston.
His lips move against mine, hard and desperate, like I’m the only source of air and he can’t breathe.
Oh gods, Weston iskissingme.
And I don’t want him to stop.
