Crimson Born - Amy Patrick Page 0,52

supportive arm, I stepped gingerly alongside him. “Where are we going?”

“Just over here. Not too much farther. I think I see somewhere we can get out of the rain.”

25

Better Off Not Knowing

Sure enough, there was a shallow cave in the rocky hillside nearby.

We ducked inside, sitting with our backs against its stony wall because the opening was too low to allow for standing comfortably.

Shivering, I wrapped my arms around my knees and pulled them close, grateful to be out of the deluge.

“It’s really coming down out there,” I said. “My dad used to call this kind of storm a ‘gullywasher.’”

“Mine would say it’s raining ‘pitchforks.’ At least there’s no lightning.”

As if on cue, white electricity branched across the sky. It was followed by a cave-shaking boom.

We looked at each other and laughed.

“Yeah. At least there’s that,” I said and laughed again. The laughter warmed me a bit but not enough. Another hard shiver rocked my body.

“You cold?” Reece slid an arm around my shoulders, cupping one of them in a large hand.

“Aren’t you?” I asked, turning my face to study his. It was close in this position—close enough I could see individual raindrops that had caught on his stubble.

He didn’t return my gaze but stared out at the storm.

“Nah. I’ve got all this tight leather to keep me warm, remember?”

He cracked a smile, and even in the darkness his teeth gleamed white. God he was handsome.

Reece had made a full recovery from the blood poisoning, and his grueling Navy SEAL-style workouts with the Bloodbound had enhanced his already impressive physique. His arm around my shoulders was heavy and well-muscled. Even his jaw looked stronger.

Unable to resist, I reached up and stroked it gently.

His fingers grabbed mine in a lightning-quick reaction, snatching them away from his face.

He frowned down at me. “What are you doing?”

“Wiping away a raindrop,” I lied. “Your face is wet.”

Staring at me for a long moment, he finally said, “Your face is wet too. And your hair... you’re soaked through. Here...”

Unfastening his jacket, he removed it then stripped the dry shirt underneath over his head and handed it to me.

“Use this.”

I took the offered shirt, but I wasn’t sure how much good it would do—not if the goal was getting drier.

The alluring scent of him filled the tight cave. That combined with the sight of his shirtless torso was causing sweat to pop out along my hairline and at the nape of my neck.

Using the soft shirt, I dabbed at my face and neck, darting glances at his bare chest, arms, and abdomen.

Wow. Heat was spreading rapidly through my body, and it was a physical struggle not to reach out and run my hands over his smooth, beautiful skin. It was like he exuded some sort of powerful but invisible magnetic force.

I wrenched my eyes away from his mid-section and those enticing V-shaped lines that disappeared beneath his belt.

“Do the Bloodbound take... steroids?” I asked, trying valiantly to sound unaffected by his partial nudity.

Reece’s head jerked back. He wore a quizzical look. “What?”

“Anabolic steroids, you know... to increase stamina, and strength, and speed, and... size.”

He laughed. “No. Is that what people say about us at the Bastion?”

“Well...” I gave him a sheepish grin.

“No. We don’t take steroids. I don’t even know if those would work on vampire physiology. But the blood we drink is a little different from the general population at the Bastion.”

“Different how?”

“It’s pure plasma. And it comes from a special group of donors.”

“How are they special?”

Reece waved a hand as if dismissing the conversation. “I don’t really know a whole lot about it. I haven’t even been initiated yet, remember.”

Ah. The subject I really wanted to talk about. Here was my opening.

“About that...”

“No Abbi. We’re not going to talk about that. I’ve made up my mind, okay? Why can’t you just accept it?”

“Because I can’t. Because I don’t understand.”

He got up as if preparing to leave the cave. The rain had dissipated a bit. “You done with that?”

He gestured to his shirt, and I handed it back to him—reluctantly. He pulled it over his head and down over his waist.

“You don’t need to understand everything, okay? Trust me when I say there are some things you’re better off not knowing for now.”

“I disagree.”

He stretched a hand down to me, offering to pull me up to my feet. “Well, you can disagree all you want to, but this conversation is closed. You wanted me to protect you, right? Then let me do my job and