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“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked, pushing myself up into a seat as I coughed up the last the of the ocean water from my lungs. Of course I knew there was a chance he’d been following me this whole time, but… a girl could dream.
His face, startlingly, frighteningly handsome caught the light as he turned to me looking a bit confused, but still somehow wearing a smirk. “Why else would I be here, Dee? I’m trying to keep you alive.”
Eyes narrowed, I pushed up onto my knees in the sand. “What thehelldoes that have to do with you snatching me out of the water like a crazy person?”
“What does keeping you alive have to do with not letting you drown yourself in the ocean?”
“Drown myself?Drown myself?Why would you think—”
“Well, you walked into the water with your clothes on, then you went underneath and I didn’t see you come back up so…”
“It’s called swimming. What does it matter to you what I wear while I do it?” I asked, staggering to my feet. A quick glance around told me we weren’t far from the pier I’d walked off of, and the main building of the resort was just a few minutes up the beach.
“Well, most people put on a bathing suit to swim, and they do it during the day, or they use their pool. You have a whole ass villa to yourself, a private lagoon. You can’t do your late-night swimming there?”
“What does it matter to you?” I asked again, taking a few steps back.
Isaiah gave me this exasperated look and then pulled off his shirt, apparently tired of trying to wring it out while it was still on. The moon illuminated his bare skin and my gaze landed on a perfectly sculpted, thick bicep.
More specifically, the ring of thorns tattooed around it.
Oh.
Yeah.
Of course.
“I’m supposed to be keeping you alive. So with that interest in mind, I would prefer we keep the risks to a minimum.”
“So Alicia lied to me?” I asked, finally making that connection. Now that I thought about it, I was furious to see his face here after she’d all but sworn she was going to call the protective detail off. She’d said she would leave me in peace, and yet here I was -notbeing left alone.
“… She didn’t lie to you,” Zay said, wiping a stream of water from his forehead. “I came on my own.”
“What?Why?”
“Because I’m… worried about you.”
I scoffed, pushing my wet hair back off my face. “Worried about me for what, Isaiah? You don’t even know me.”
His gaze narrowed at me. “I know enough to know there’s something up with you. You gonna look me in the face and tell me I’m wrong?”
No, of course I wouldn’t.
Couldn’t.
Because overwhelming restlessness had led me here.
Sure, the desire to write was a convenient add-on, but honestly? I was looking for something else too.Somethingmissing that I couldn’t pinpoint or identify.
It was maddening.
Still though.
“Before a few days ago, I hadn’t seen you in a decade, Isaiah. You think you can just read me now?”
“Couldn’t I always?”
That question took my breath away.
