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“Hey!” I said, stomping my foot on the ground. “I’m feeling verbally attacked right now.”
“Well maybe you should-” Whatever Calax was about to say was cut off by a rumble. For a moment, I was frozen. What was that?
A violent tremor rocked my body forward. Glasses shattered, and somebody let out an ear-splitting squeal. I would like to say that that somebody was Calax, but that would be a lie. It may or may not have been me. The table trembled, collapsing in on itself like old, brittle paper.
Before I realized what was happening, not a hard feat, mind you, Calax had pushed me to the ground, his muscled body covering mine. An assortment of dishes and wall decorations rained down upon us. I was too stunned to move.
After what felt like hours, but was probably more like a couple of minutes, the shaking subsided.
“What the hell was that?” I heard Ronan ask, but my tongue felt like sandpaper in my mouth. I couldn’t answer him, even if I wanted to.
We’d just survived an earthquake, that much was obvious. While earthquakes weren’t unheard of in Michigan, they weren’t necessarily common either. I could count on one hand the number of earthquakes I had experienced while living in this resort.
“Is everyone okay?” Asher questioned.
A chorus of affirmatives sounded around us.
It suddenly occurred to me that I was still sprawled on the ground, underneath the table, with Calax hovering over me. His weight rested on his forearms.
Squirming, I turned onto my back, so I could see his face. I couldn’t understand why he had protected me. Was it a chivalrous gesture? Or was he trying to smother me with his body and make it look like an accident?
Despite my wishes, the expression on his face didn’t appear murderous. It could almost be described as…tender. That was one word I never thought I’d use to describe that giant of a man. His lashes feathered against his cheekbones, and his breath left him in a smooth exhale. Before I realized what was happening, his calloused hand reached to brush my hair away from my face.
And there it was again. Thattenderness.
“Are you okay?” he asked. That same hand curved around my jaw, thumb skimming across my cheek. His hand almost engulfed my entire face.
“I’m fine,” I whispered.
This was a very strange moment for me. I didn’t know how to behave, what to say. For as long as I could remember, Calax had hated me and I had hated him. We were Romeo and Juliet, but without the love or the whole dying thing. In a blink of an eye, we found ourselves balancing on a precariously strung tightrope. One wrong move, and we would both be thrown over the edge. I had to remember that Calax was my nemesis, even if his body elicited completely un-nemesis like feelings above me. Non-enemy feelings that were getting harder and harder…
Scrambling out from under him, I tripped over a toppled chair in my haste to get some space. As he climbed to his feet, his hardened...um...manhood drew my eyes before they flickered back to his face. My cheeks burned.
Earthquake. There was an earthquake. And the salt and pepper shakers broke. Oh dear god, not the salt and pepper shakers. How could we continue on?
That, ladies and gentlemen, was deflection at its finest.
“Are you okay, Princess?” Ronan asked, his fingers grazing my arm to turn me towards him. Ryder appeared over his shoulder, his brow furrowed in concern.
“Of course I’m okay,” I scoffed. “What about you guys?”
“We’re fine.” That came, surprisingly, from Tamson. He brushed dust from his slacks and pushed his glasses further up his nose. I noticed, with some relief, that they weren’t broken.
“Everybody stay calm!” An unfamiliar man called. I think he was the manager, though I couldn’t recall his name. “Somebody should be here shortly.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
Great. Just freaking great.
