His stare lingered before he grabbed the lighter, kneeled, and did it for me. When the fire grew into flames, he rose to his feet and set the lighter on the stonework. “Light the deepest part of the logs. Not the corner.” He moved to his usual spot and sank into the armchair, the glow from the flames blanketing his face with golden light. It made his eyes a little brighter, like freshly tilled soil on a spring day. His gaze was reserved for my face. He always wore a stoic and intense expression, but whenever his eyes were on me, it was more pronounced. Slight, but deep.
He was in charge of this place, had the power to do anything, so if he said he had no bad intentions toward me, I believed him. There was no reason to give me a false sense of security, to make me drop my guard when he could just tear it down. I grabbed the tray and started to eat.
With his arms stretched out in front of him and his body still, he watched me eat the food the guard had provided. A lot of men weren’t talkative, but he took it to a new extreme. He seemed to enjoy silence more than a good conversation.
I didn’t know what else to do besides eat, so that’s what I did. I was starving after the long day. We didn’t get breakfast. We got two meals a day, and that was why the girls slept with the guards to get extra sustenance. I’d never had much of an appetite, so I didn’t need to go the extra mile.
The thought of the girls made me think of Raven.
She was being starved on purpose—so she would be the next candidate for the Red Snow.
I didn’t know what had caused the guard to focus on Raven, but knowing her, she probably refused a request or pissed him off, and now she was at his mercy. My mind suddenly became clear as a sunny day after a rain as I looked at him. “I have an offer.”
It seemed to be too much effort for him to react, and his face stayed the same.
“I’ll let you have me the way you want to have me…if you let my sister and me go.”
His face was a slab of gray concrete.
An eternity seemed to pass, and there was no response. A silent no.
“Okay…if you let Raven go.” If I could get her out of here, I would be able to live with myself again.
He didn’t even blink.
“Her guard is starving her—”
“I don’t negotiate.” The look on his face told me the conversation was over. The request had been denied. We were finished.
At least I tried. “You said you wanted me…”
“Still do.” A man had never looked at me like that before, like he could touch me with just his stare, wrap his fingers around my neck and slide his hand gently up my shirt over my soft belly—when there were twelve feet between us.
“I just offered you a way to make that happen—”
“That’s not how I want to have you.”
“You don’t have any other option.” He either forced me, or he gave me something in return.
He touched me again with just his look, his big hands in my hair, his body guiding me flat against the bed, his narrow hips sliding between my parting thighs. His weight pressed me into the mattress, and he looked down at me like I was a newfound paradise he would claim in his name. “I do.”
I shook my head. “No, you don’t.” I was terrified to defy him, but the words fluttered out anyway. If he really forced himself on me, I’d just give in and allow it to happen because a fight would be pointless. But knowing that he wouldn’t gave me some courage to disagree. He gave me a power that no one else in this camp had given me. I took it and ran with it.
He turned his gaze to the fire. “I don’t need another option. I just have to wait for the option I want. And I will.”
I worked in the clearing, my fingertips callused from the constant toil from sunrise to sunset. With our heads down, each one of us worked as if our lives depended on it—because they did.
It was Friday. That meant someone would be selected.
I hoped it wasn’t Raven.
Everyone looked up when they saw the boss approach, flanked by