AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He closed his eyes, taking several deep breaths.
He nodded.
Her face scrunched and she started to pull. His arm tensed, his muscles fighting her for every modicum of space she managed to pull. Farther. Farther.
His mouth twisted slightly, battling for calm.
Farther, farther.
Pop.
The distinctive snap of his joint falling back into place vibrated through his arm to her hands.
“Was that it?”
“Yes.” He groaned out the word, instant relief on his face. “Gently let it go.”
She eased her hands forward, letting his arm pull naturally to his body. Releasing his wrist, she scooted backward and leaned against one of the large framed mirrors that extended to the floor.
For all the relief on his face, she was grateful, but she never wanted to have to do that again. She had no idea that would twist her gut so tight she would end up a breath away from retching.
Roe sat up, his left hand on his shoulder as he moved it about. “Right back into place. It pops out easily, ever since that first time a week after I arrived at Newgate. That was when I first met Doctor Lewis. But it’s easier now to get it back into place than it was. Or maybe that was just your magical touch.” He looked at her, winking.
That he was moving normally again, not wincing, did little to ease the churning in her gut. “Tell me that was the only thing that got damaged in the fall. I don’t think I can bite back much more bile.”
He chuckled. “Didn’t care for it?”
“Didn’t care for you in pain. No.”
A soft smile lined his lips, his steel grey eyes sinking deep into her soul. “I know the feeling.”
He flipped tall onto his knees, shuffling forward until he was right in front of her. His left hand flattened onto the mirror aside her head and he leaned down to her. “Let me get your mind off it, then.”
“I don’t think that’s possible.”
His lips met hers, hard, frantic—as wild as the madcap dash they’d just experienced from the docks.
Her mouth parted under his, letting him invade, bringing him closer. The moment she was about to lose herself in him, he pulled up slightly.
“Now tell me what the hell you meant at the tavern.”
{ Chapter 14 }
The words came at her softly and she cracked her eyelashes to find his gaze pinning her. “At the tavern?”
He pulled back more, his head shaking slightly. “You said you didn’t think that I’d touch you again.”
She’d forgotten that. Forgotten it so fully in the scramble to get away from the docks it now sounded silly to her ears. Pathetic, even.
“I…it was nothing.”
“Why would you say it?”
“I didn’t know what I was saying.” She shrugged, her shoulders squeaking along the mirror behind her. “It’s just that I know I was convenient on the ship. A curiosity.”
“Tor…” His head dropped forward, shaking. With a deep breath, he lifted his gaze to her. “Why would you think that? Convenient? A curiosity?”
His voice cut into her, taking on a dangerous edge, balancing on the precipice of anger.
