The Summer King Bundle 3 Stories - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,50

as I stepped farther inside. “Are you in here? Like alive?”

Several beats of silence passed and then, “I told you to leave.”

The guttural voice caused my breath to catch in my throat, and I froze.

“And you left.” There was another pause. “You should not have come back.”

The entire world with the exception of Tink would agree with that statement.

But I was here.

“I know… I know you’re not okay.” I forced my legs to move, and it was like walking in quicksand. I neared the swath of light. “I know that you’re going to be really not okay because you haven’t fed.”

There was no response.

Wanting to turn and run in the other direction, I did the opposite and stepped into the light.

And I saw him.

“Holy….”

The Prince was… he was shirtless, and while I’d seen a decent number of shirtless men in my life, I’d never seen one like him.

And that had nothing to do with the trails of blood running down his back and stomach, as terrible as that was to admit. My priorities were so, so wrong, because I wasn’t checking out the ragged holes in his shoulder or chest. He was….

He was beautiful, even covered in blood.

All that golden, hard skin. Defined pecs. Abs tightly coiled and a dusting of golden hair that traveled below his navel to the band—

Oh, sweet Jesus, his pants were undone and hanging low enough that I could tell the man went commando underneath.

I should look away.

I couldn’t look away.

Not when my gaze got hung on those interesting indentions on either side of his hips. How in the world did someone get muscles there? I’d never seen that on someone in real life. Only in photographs or on TV. I was beginning to think those kind of muscles were fake news, but he had them and then some. Actually, his body was absolutely freaking glorious, and it was clear that I needed to obtain sexual gratification from anything other than my trusty vibrator, because I was staring at him like I’d never seen a man before and—

“Do you like what you see?” he asked.

Jerking my gaze to his, I felt heat blast my face as I blurted out the stupidest thing possible. “You’re bleeding.”

The Prince tilted his head to the side as he held a bloodied towel in his hand. “I was completely… unaware of this.”

A thousand smartass responses traveled to the tip of my tongue and died there, because he turned to the gray and black tiled shower stall. Muscles flexed and contracted as he tossed the towel into the stall.

“You have to know why I told you… to leave,” he was saying, twisting at the waist and gripping the basin of the sink so tightly his knuckles bleached white. “I will be fine.”

He saved my life? How?

He had to have, because why would Tink lie? And I knew I should’ve died that night. The pain and all that blood and the scars… the scars no one but those doctors have seen.

The Prince saved my life.

And not only that, he understood why I had to do what I had to do. He didn’t like it. He made it more than clear he didn’t want me to do it and now a lot of what he’d said made sense, but he still understood.

No one understood.

I’d never let anyone in the last two years get a chance to understand. Not even Ivy, but I let… I let the Prince in and I was now just realizing that. I’d let him in and even though I knew of him for two years, I’d only really known him for a week. And he already knew more about me than most.

What did that mean?

Something warm and confusing and consuming filled up my chest as I stared at this beautiful, complicated man. And that’s what I saw when I stared at him. Not a fae. Not an Ancient. Not a Prince. Just a man.

A man who was dying.

And I could save him.

“No, you won’t be okay.” I found my voice and actually said something useful. “I know if you… if you don’t feed, you will die.”

His gaze swung to mine and his features were sharper, more stark. He took a deep breath and it lifted his chest. “Are you… offering yourself up?”

My heart stuttered in my chest as he pushed away from the sink and faced me. “I’m here and I really can’t believe I’m here, but it’s either me or I go out and kidnap a human, and