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CHAPTER17
CHRISTY
“We should take a walk outside,” Leon says a couple of mornings later whilst we’re eating breakfast.
My hand stills, a heaped forkful of egg balancing precariously on the tines as I look over at him. “A walk?”
“You’ve not seen much of the grounds, or even the castle. I thought perhaps…” His voice trails off as he realiseswhythat is. I’m still a prisoner despite how he feels towards me.
“Are you sure you want to risk it?” I ask with a heavy dose of sarcasm, lowering my fork and abandoning the fluffy eggs. “I might make a dash for it.”
His gaze darkens. “If you run, I’ll only chase you.”
“Even now that you’ve got me out of your system and we’ve fu—”
“Madelove,” he interrupts, bristling, clearly offended by the off-handed way I described what happened between us. It was more than that, I know it as much as he does, but playing it down helps me not analyse my feelings too much. I don’t want to go there. He grits his jaw, searching my gaze. “Do you honestly think now that we’ve slept together that I’m going to just let you go? If I wasn’t going to before, then I sure as fuck won’t now.”
“Isn’t that what you did afterbreaking inthe other Numbers?” I counter evenly. “You fucked them, broke them, then cast them aside for others to do the same.”
“You’re no longer a Number, Christy, and you know it,” he says, swiping a hand through his thick, black hair. It’s still wet from the bath he took earlier, and a droplet slides down the side of his face, dripping from his jaw. I watch it splash onto his white t-shirt that’s spotted with blood from where the newly formed scab has been aggravated by the material.
“Do I?” I cross my arms across my chest, picking a fight for no good reason other than I have to put him back inside the box labelledthe man I must killrather than the alternative which I can’t even voice out loud, let alone think about. I’ve spent a lot of time going over everything that happened between us earlier in the week, and each time I’ve tried to convince myself it was nothing more than a means to an end, part of my plan.
Only itwasn’t.
It was so much more than that.
“You have to understand something. I’ve only ever fucked women. I’venevermade love,” he says earnestly. “That night with you I tasted heaven and I finally understood what those words meant. I felt…” He shakes his head in wonder.
“Wait!” I snap, pushing my chair back and standing. “Don’t! Just don’t say anymore.”
Leon gets to his feet, circling the table as he stalks me. I back away from him, shaking my head, but still he comes for me, pinning me against the wall. My hands fly up to his chest and he winces from the sting as my palms rest against the cuts I made in his skin. “Why not?”
“It’s too… I don’t…” I stutter, unable to articulate how I’m feeling because, honestly, all I am is confused, and I should be completely clear headed and certain of my intentions towards him. He watches me struggle to respond, until eventually I blurt out the only thing I can say in the moment. “A walk outside in the fresh air would be welcome.”
For a beat we just stare at each other and I expect him to push the point, instead he nods, shoving off from the wall and giving me much needed space. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Let’s go for that walk.”
“And your brothers? Should I be worrying about them?” I ask, forcing myself to relax and reminding him and myself that just because he’s changed his tune, doesn’t mean either of them have.
“Five is keeping an eye on Konrad for me. He’s hiding away in the dungeons right now.”
“Hiding? From whom?”
Leon tips his head to the side. “From you, of course.”
I give him a sceptical look. “And Jakub?”
“Occupied right now.”
A flash of worry crosses his features but he hides it by grabbing his teal mask that’s resting beside his plate and putting it on.
“You’re not concerned he’ll try and finish what he started?”
Leon checks his gun before reholstering it. “No. I know Jakub, he’ll be trying to find a way to hurt himself some more so he doesn’t have to face his feelings.”
