wet shirt, wanting to be as close as possible as well. He was my lifeline. It felt like if he let go of me for even a minute, the ghost would come back and I would be gone this time.
I may have had the suckiest life imaginable up to then, but right now, I felt an extreme urge to live.
“You saved me,” I whispered as I looked up at him, very aware of how bad we both smelled but not caring in the least bit.
“This was the reaction I was looking for the last time I saved your life,” Alaric said wryly, but there was no anger in his voice, only relief.
I tore my gaze away from his to look at our surroundings for the first time. We were in what looked like a giant cave. There was a waterfall across where I’d come out, except instead of beautiful water it was delivering a steady stream of dark brown water. The tunnel I must have fallen out of was situated into the rock wall, at least twenty feet above the pool of muck I’d fallen into.
I trembled just looking at it all. “How did you find me?” I asked in wonder, turning my attention back to him.
He took a deep breath and wrinkled his forehead as he answered. “I don’t know,” he said slowly, shaking his head slightly in confusion. “I was sleeping, and I woke up to your scream echoing in my head. It sounded so real, and it kept happening. I knew that it had to be real. I broke out of my cell, and it was like there was a rope connecting me to you, I knew where you were.”
He shook then, his gaze growing distant as if he was thinking hard about something.
“I broke through that door and saw you thrashing in the water. And then you disappeared. And I just knew…if I didn’t get to you right then, I’d never see you again.” His body trembled again, and he closed his eyes like he was in pain. His face crumpled up, and he pursed his lips, trying to get control of his emotions.
His eyes flew open then, and I gasped at the love that I saw in his eyes. There was no sign of the cocky, ego-maniac, sex-god in his gaze. There was only complete devotion.
He pulled me into his still quivering arms, and we took comfort in each other’s embrace.
It took a while for us to calm down, but I knew I’d relaxed when our smell began to get to me.
It was putrid.
I pulled myself away, missing his embrace the second I did so, and wrinkled up my nose as we looked at each other.
“We smell,” I said, stating the obvious.
“Like ass,” Alaric agreed, and I couldn’t help but giggle because he was coated in brown slime…that may or may not be mostly made up of the prisoner’s crap. I was sure I looked exactly the same, if not worse.
And then we were both laughing, so hard that tears streamed from my eyes.
It only took a moment for my laughter to turn into sobs. I was so completely done with everything. Alaric’s sexy chuckle faded away, and he quickly stood up, scooping me into his arms.
I laid my cheek carefully against his chest and just let myself cry as he got us out of the sewage room. I guessed if I had to cry, it might as well have been up against a hot guy’s body. That seemed to be the only upside from my propensity to crying constantly lately.
I didn’t watch where I was going and was surprised when he opened a door and we stepped into an opulent bathroom, complete with a giant marble shower and a pedestal tub that could comfortably fit at least four people.
“What is this place?” I gasped, afraid to move as he set me down on the marble floor. Everything was so white and so clean. The last thing I wanted to do was leave poop streaks everywhere by walking to the shower.
“A trade with the warden for procuring a trinket for him,” Alaric commented, walking to the shower and turning it on. “He has a few fancy bathrooms throughout the prison that he loans out to people as little boons.
After finding out this bathroom came from the warden, I had no problem sullying it. In fact, it may have been petty, but I tried to splash as much sludge on the floor as I could as