Page 169 of Sweet Nightmare
I step closer, stopping at the edge of the ice. “You wandered onto a frozen lake alone.”
She shrugs. “I know how to skate.”
“That doesn’t make you immortal.”
One thin blond eyebrow lifts. “Are you worried about me, Stephen?”
Stephen.
Not Khaos.
Stephen.
Something shifts beneath my ribs.
“Not particularly.”
The answer comes too quickly.
She crosses her arms. “You sound worried.”
“And you’re reckless.”
“I’m an Olympic gold medalist. I’ll be fine.”
Smartass.
“You’re alone in the mountains at midnight, skating on a lake you don’t even know is safe.”
“It doesn’t scare me.”
Something about those words bothers me.
Because she doesn’t sound arrogant.
She sounds lonely.
The expression disappears before I can be sure, replaced by sarcasm and control. Her usual armor.
“Why were you standing among the trees like a creep?”
“Fuck, I don’t know.”
I shake my head, a small smile tugging at my mouth.
My answer surprises her.
Silence settles between us as snow falls and the fairy lights sway overhead.
Neither of us looks away.
Why the fuck do we never look away?
Something is changing deep in my bones. Something I shouldn’t want and have no idea how to stop.
I know she feels it, too. I see it in the shift of her breathing, the brief flicker of her gaze toward my mouth before she looks back into my eyes. In the way her shoulders stiffen beneath her coat, as if she’s angry with herself for letting her guard slip.
Good.
