Famine (The Four Horsemen #3) - Laura Thalassa Page 0,18

almost completely, making the room too dark to see.

The two of us sit in the darkness, listening.

“… can track him … can’t be far …”

I feel myself go cold all over.

“… pointless … rain … tracks … morning …”

Maybe the rain washed away all evidence that I dragged the horseman here. Maybe we got lucky.

I think of how little luck I’ve had in my life. Best not to assume it will suddenly save the day now.

The voices move off, and they don’t come back. Whatever they decided, it doesn’t lead them back our way.

Maybe we’re okay—for now.

After that, I can’t sleep, too afraid of those people finding us.

My gaze creeps back to the horseman’s dark form. I can’t get that first image of him out of my head. He was so mutilated … the thought still takes my breath away. It doesn’t help that every so often I hear a gasp of pain in the darkness. I can no longer tell if he’s sleeping or not. I go back to stroking his hair, and the action seems to calm him.

As the night wears on, the chilly air pricks at my bare skin. I don’t dare take my shirt back from the horseman, even though I’m freezing. I begin to shiver, my teeth clicking together.

“You’re cold.” His husky voice seems as though it’s pulled from the darkness itself. It makes my skin prick, though not in an unpleasant way.

“I’m okay.”

I’m in such deep trouble it’s not even funny. If I don’t get caught in the crosshairs of those men who are looking for the horseman, men who might not mind hurting a teenage girl, then my Aunt Maria is going to disown me.

I can hear her shrill voice even now. Thought you could spend the night with some boy, you little idiot? Well, if you think you’re old enough for sex, then you’re old enough to live on your own.

And that would be that.

Or maybe she’ll just beat the living shit out of me.

Not all my shivering is from the cold.

“Lay next to me.”

The horseman’s voice drags me from my thoughts.

I stare at where I think his eyes are as his words coil low in my belly. I can tell he doesn’t mean to make the offer sexual, but between that rough voice and the fact that our torsos are both bare, my mind can’t help going there.

I’ve never laid next to a man who I wasn’t related to.

“You’re hurt,” I say. “I don’t want to jostle—”

“If you were worried about jostling my injuries, you wouldn’t have dragged me damn close to the point of death.”

To be honest, I think I dragged him past the point of death, but apparently he can live through that too.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt you,” I say. “I was trying to help you.”

He grunts, though I have no clue whether he believes me or not.

“I … couldn’t leave you,” I admit, picking at a fingernail.

The room is quiet for a long moment. Then—

“Lay down next to me,” he says again.

I run my teeth over my lower lip.

“I don’t trust you,” I confess.

“That makes two of us.”

I make a disbelieving noise. “I saved you.”

“If this is your idea of saving a man—” His voice cuts off and he takes a ragged breath, “then I don’t want to know what your idea of punishment is.”

“I can’t believe—” My teeth chatter, “I actually felt bad for you. You’re so rude.”

“Fine,” he says, “stay cold.”

I glare at his form in the darkness. It’s clear he’s done talking.

I last maybe another fifteen minutes before I curse under my breath, then scooch over to his side. I bump into something wet and gooey. The horseman hisses in a breath.

Shit—

“Sorry!” I apologize.

He grunts again.

Gingerly I lay myself down next to him, bumping his arm twice more on accident. Each time he makes a low, pained sound.

Bet he’s regretting his offer now.

Finally, my bare skin presses against the side of his torso. The only place to put my head is on his shoulder, and I can’t help but breathe him in. This is how lovers sleep, nestled in each other’s arms.

Why am I even thinking about that?

“Don’t get any ideas,” I say out loud, as though the horseman is the one with the dirty thoughts.

“Because your flesh is so tempting right now,” he quips.

My face heats a little. “I don’t know what you’re capable of.”

“I don’t have hands at the moment. And until I reacquire them, I think you can save worrying about