Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Everything.
And I would do it again if I had to, but please no.
No one was waiting for us when we got back to the clubhouse. My legs shook as I got out and put my wet shoes back on, while Henri helped and then carried barefoot Pascal. His expression went troubled as his eyes landed on me standing there in two tiny blankets that covered me as much as some of my swim coverups did. Agnes was holding my clothes in her arms, and Duncan leaned against my bare lower leg in a way that felt like he was guarding me.
Henri tilted his attention up to the sky, his Adam’s apple bobbing harshly in his throat once. Just once. He had a beautiful throat.
Pressing his lips together hard enough that I could see the white line form between them, he dropped his gaze back down and pinned me with it.
“I’ll carry you to your room,” Henri called out, sounding dead serious.
I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to stop another shiver from working its way down my spine. I shook my head. “You need to deal with them first, Fluff.” But that sounded nice; I would’ve loved it in another universe. A hug would’ve been great, but… the rat-werewolf boy was a mess, Shiloh looked on the verge of crying again any second, and Agnes was… she was breathing hard beside me. I didn’t know what that was about, but I’d deal with it when I wasn’t out here in my underwear. “Want me to stick around?” I offered the man I wanted to believe was still my friend.
He did that frowl thing—a half frown, half scowl—even as he just about glared at the two kids who were about to be grounded for the rest of their lives. One of them was stuck to his legs like glue, and the other had already wrapped his arms around his neck like he was much younger than he was.
We both knew I was right.
But he still hesitated. I could see his jaw clenching and unclenching even at this distance. “Nina.” His voice was all crushed velvet, his expression so pinched, so raw… I didn’t know how to describe it. It couldn’t have been anguished.
Could it?
The shrill ring of his cell phone erupted the way it always seemed to, at the worst moment, and Henri grimaced toward his hip before pulling it out of his pocket with his free hand. Whatever was on the screen made him close his eyes, made him sigh. His forehead was furrowed when he lifted his head again.
Murder Henri was in the process of reactivating.
And it was my job to reel him back in.
“It’s okay, Fluff.” I wanted to make him feel better when he seemed so torn standing there. “I can make it to my room.”
My comment didn’t help.
But he lifted his chin, his mouth a flat, harsh slash across his face that told me Murder Henri still lurked somewhere in his body, but he was trying his best to wrangle him in. “Go shower. I’ll come for you the second I get them to their parents,” Henri told me through clenched teeth.
Was there something else he wanted to say?
I didn’t know, but I lifted my hand, trying to tell him it was okay. They were kids. And they’d had the shit scared out of them even more than I had.
“I’m glad you two are okay,” I told the boys simply before turning and moving toward the clubhouse as fast as my stiff legs would let me.
Agnes’s fingers grazed my thigh so lightly while we walked, her touch resembled a feather. I had to fight to keep a neutral expression; too much and I would scare her off… but I couldn’t help myself. I touched the top of her head for the same amount of time she’d touched me. Just a second.
I’d only taken two steps when a hand cupped my hip and turned me all the way around.
It was Henri.
Henri who used his other hand to palm the back of my head, tilting my face up. His head dipped. His mouth and nose right there, inches, inches, from mine.
“What is it?” I croaked, surprised. “What’s that look on your face for?” I raised my hand, ignoring the scrapes and tiny puncture wounds from the tree that peppered my palm, and pinched his chin. “Fluff, the kids are fine. If I was going to die from hypothermia, I would’ve already,” I tried to assure him with a slight smile… that melted off at the fire that rose up in his eyes at my comment.
His hand took mine, and he drew it away, staring down at my injured palm. A knot formed between those dark eyebrows. Henri’s chest rose with a single deep breath, a moving wall in front of my eyes, before he exhaled, roughly.