Page 82 of Bound in Ashes

“Jack—”

“Go ahead.”

He turned his back to me and looked out the windows.

I was dismissed.

I welcomed the shock of the ice-cold water, but finished quickly.

My hands were shaking.

I found a T-shirt from a local nature preserve and put it on. It was tight, but it would have to do.

When I emerged from the bathroom, Jack was exactly where I’d left him.

Dressed.

Watching.

Still.

This was wrong.

Jack didn’t wait. Jack didn’t hold back.

Something in his stillness made my skin prickle.

“Better?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

He stood and walked toward me slowly.

Too slowly.

My pulse kicked up.

He stopped inches away, lifting his hand to my face.

I waited for the grab.

The roughness.

The claim.

Instead, his fingers traced my cheekbone, featherlight.

“You’re cold,” he murmured.

“The water was⁠—”

“Come here.”

He entwined his fingers with mine and guided me to the bed, then knelt in front of me.

What the actual fuck?

After the day I had, I was already confused.