Page 93 of The Hunted

No, she couldn’t leave him.

Eryx.

That wasn’t how this worked and the longer she spent with him, even if it was in separate rooms and without his attention, the stronger the need became.

Which was exactly why Arelle found herself—once again—in a bathtub while the sky was dark outside, the storms raged all around them, trying to scrub these feelings right out of her fucking skin. That’s what she blamed the itch on, although she didn’t know if it was true.

Couldn’t say at all it was the problem.

In her mind, however, it was.

She would get it out.

A sob slipped past her lips as she pushed the damp strands of her hair out of her face before she went right back to scrubbing her legs all over again. “Gods, why?”

Why did she feel like this?

Why wouldn’t it go away?

Just … why?

She’d probably asked the same question ten times. It wasn’t as though she expected an answer, and honestly, other than the guards waiting outside the chambers for her to finish bathing, she assumed she was alone.

Arelle should have known better.

Eryx had a way of sneaking up on her.

“As I understand it,” came his voice from the arched doorway leading into the bathing chambers, “the … unpleasantness you’re experiencing comes from being out of the saltwater for a while. They call it the leeching. Because it leeches from your skin over time and it can cause quite a feeling. A common complication for your kind. Apparently, it’ll get easier with time until it passes completely.”

Fuck him.

The shocking swell of anger at his answer—that he just knew what it was—pissed her off like nothing else.

Arelle didn’t even bother to glance up from her task of scrubbing her now-red skin into a raw mess as she said, “Why are you still there?”

It wasn’t like she needed him to enjoy her pain and struggle. He certainly did that more than enough at every other point in her days and evenings. He thought she didn’t know when he watched her, but she did. She could feel it most times.

Foolish girl, her mind taunted, because it was you and only you who did this to the both of you. As though she needed the reminder. Really.

“Leave,” she repeated.

His footsteps didn’t follow her demand, but frankly, her tone hadn’t been that strong. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted him near or gone.

The confusion was the worst. Look at all he’d done to her—all the things he promised to do that would hurt her still—and yet the damned thrall of her mate had every part of her craving the man more and more. It never went away. A constant in her breathing days, it tortured her.

She hated him.

She wanted him.

“Or is it you who would like to leave?” he asked quietly. “Then you could return to a kingdom now meant to be yours. Isn’t that what would happen if you found your way back to the Blu Sea?”

Arelle froze.

How did he know that?

Lifting her gaze from her tender knees, she found him leaning in the doorway. He’d shed the day clothes from earlier, now wearing only his evening clothes and a robe stained a rich red with a satiny sheen on the fabric. Tied loosely at the waist, the robe still showcased the broadness of his shoulders and brought out the golden sheen in his skin, even under the flickering lights of candles and thick steam. He seemed ready for bed.

So, why was he here?