“Every time you stuff something down, you tighten that noose,” he grinds out, and I scrub deeper …deeper.Watching more blood swirl down the drain. “Or maybe that’sexactlywhat you want?”
Avoid.
I cup my trembling hands beneath the dribble of water I splash against my cheeks again. “You’re wrong.” I grab a cloth beside the sink and dig my face into it, scrubbing hard. “I’m perfectly fine.”
My tone is firm.
Dismissive.
A full fuckingstop.
His body aligns with my spine, and my heart bolts. Lowering the cloth, I see his hands gripping the sink either side of me, caging me in.
His lips skim my ear like a blow of winter wind, stealing my ability to think straight as shivers erupt down the side of my neck and across my bare shoulder, exposed by the gaping neckline of Rhordyn’s oversized shirt. Feeling his eyes on me, I look up to meet his gaze in our reflection, the sun now sunk beneath the canopy, turning the windowpane into a perfectly reflective surface.
“Lie to me again,” he murmurs, delivering the threat with such poised precision I feel it slide down my spine like an icy blade. “Idareyou.”
It’s too much. Too heavy.
Too intense.
I close my eyes, cutting myself off, ignoring every cell in my body that’s screaming for me to lean into him. For me to weave my hand up around the back of his neck and pull him down until our lips are a clash of fire and ice.
Not mine—I ruined our chances. I’ll ruin him.
Again.
Avoid.
His cold hands settle around my upper arms, his voice too soft when he says, “You need to find a way to shed the weight of your damage, Orlaith. Or it will drag you under.”
Then he leaves.
I buckle the moment the door snips shut, arms stretched up and clinging to the edge of the bench as I draw slow, steady breaths through my tightening throat. In through my nose, out through my mouth …
I’m already under.
* * *
Iopen the door, his stare scraping across my skin the moment I exit the cabin. Avoiding his eyes, I pluck a path through the grass until I’m standing in the ring of firelight, looking up at the billowing plume of smoke rising to kiss the stars.
My heart is a wild, restless sprite caught in a cage …
You need to find a way to shed the weight of your damage.
Feeling his icy perusal trace down my arm to the shears hanging from my hand, I drop my gaze.
He’s sitting on one of the logs, elbows on his spread knees, hands clasped, watching me from beneath the thick, dark, coiled shelf of his hair—all roughly hewn perfection.
He’s never appeared more real and reachable than he does right now.
And I’ve never felt further away.
“I need help with something.”
He nods.
I chew my bottom lip. “You’ll probably think it’s silly …”
