Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Josie

He was naked.

Dear God, he is naked. Oh my gosh, he is naked.

I'd heard his yelling, like the nightmare at the hotel, and when I found him, he was in a daze. Going through some type of nightmarish trance of his past. Whatever happened to him in the past had truly messed him up.

There were obvious signs of PTSD. Most of my counseling was aimed toward kids, but you'd be surprised at the amount of children that suffered from similar stories.

Then he'd woken in my arms and kissed me, shockingly. Very shockingly.

It was better than the first if that was even possible.

He was needy, greedy, and I was his willing assailant.

The rough pads of his fingertips felt like rough sin against my skin. Not to mention that I was kneeling in front of him with water pouring down on us like a scene from a movie.

And he was still naked.

The deep groans that left him made me hot all over. It didn't matter that I was soaking wet from the shower. It was an inferno flickering inside of me.

Kellan angled my mouth higher, his tongue delving deeper into my mouth and pulling out soft gasps that he seemed to enjoy.

Wrapping his arm around me, he stood us both up, guiding my thighs around his waist and trapping me against the wall.

When he tore away from my hungry kiss, he lowered his head and bit the sensitive flesh of my neck. The world melted away, and stars lined my eyes.

"Is everything okay?" Fern's soft voice came from the back door.

Yes. Yes. Yes! Everything is fine. Please find anywhere else to be.

Kellan tore his mouth from my neck, his heavy-lidded gaze settled on mine. There was so much lust staring back at me.

"Everything is fine, Fern."

I could tell she hesitated. Maybe she knew I was inside and waited on my confirmation as well? It didn't matter because I couldn't speak. I couldn't open my mouth without something embarrassing sliding off my tongue.

The back door finally shut, and I let out a sigh that turned into a giggle.

Kellan's gaze was still hard on my face making me squirm on his naked lap.

"Stop moving," he instructed.

I did because it didn't look up for debate.

Kellan groaned under his breath and slowly slid me to my feet. My legs were rubbery, but the shower wall kept me upright.

Kellan's gaze traveled down my wet t-shirt shamelessly. I didn"t have to look down to know he stared at my peaked nipples. The whiplash I was getting from this man was killer. Did he realize how hard he seemed? Or the fact that despite his resistance, I couldn't shake this pull?

It was awfully pathetic, but apparently, he enjoyed it as well.

He ran his fingers into his wet hair and pushed it away from his forehead, giving me the pleasure of seeing his dark-set eyes.

"We need to talk," he said.

I found my footing and crossed my arms over my chest. "I would say so," I agreed. "I'm freezing. Maybe after we dry off."

I stepped around him toward the swinging door, but he caught me. My body turned involuntarily. "I like the way you kiss."

A heated blush traveled my entire body. No one had ever said that to me before. It was ... something I liked. His honesty felt raw and made me feel wanted. There was something dark and greedy about the way he said it.

"Ditto," I managed to say while making a run for the house.

Fern jumped away from the door and bumped her head against the cabinet door. "Ouch," she said halfheartedly.

"Wow, smooth," I said.

She chuckled and covered her mouth with her hand. "Sorry. I couldn't help myself."

"I tried to stop her, but she"s always been nosey," Ernest said from the living room. "There are more clothes in the room. You look like you need a change."

Hurrying down the small hallway, I shut the door and took a deep breath.

My body was still thriving with adrenaline, so with shaky limbs I dressed in an oversized T-shirt and left the wet underwear out to dry.

Heavy footsteps drifted down the hallway minutes later. Kellan swung the door open, dressed in the same t-shirt and sweats as before.

"Hi."

Kellan shut the door. "Hi," he answered. "Sit down."

I gave him a warning look before sitting. I didn't need him thinking he was gonna boss me around now. That's not how it works.

"Please," I said.

Kellan stopped in front of me. The lack of emotion on his face made me uncomfortable. We would have to work on that. "Please what?"

I pressed my mouth into a thin line. "Please, sit down."

The corner of his mouth pulled into a small smirk. "Please, sit down, Josephine."

"Thank you," I said softly. "So, what are we talking about?"

I resisted the urge to swing my feet like a child and waited. Kellan grabbed a small stool in the corner, dragged it over and leaned back against it.

He gestured between the two of us. "Us."

I wouldn't admit how much I loved hearing that.

Kellan ran his palms over his face. "I haven't been with a woman in a long time."

"Not too surprising," I mumbled. "You have such a friendly demeanor ..."

Kellan chuckled. It slid over my body like a weighted blanket. I loved it. I wanted to hear it over and over. I wanted to be the reason behind it.

"Right," he said, looking down at his intertwined fingers. "Deidamia killed my family. She ate my entire village decades ago. I'm very old. She gave me an out, I took it, and now I live forever."

The simplicity of his words hit me hard. How else would he say it? He'd been living in this nightmare for longer than was fair.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

Kellan looked up; a strand of hair fell onto his forehead, and for a moment, he looked young and vulnerable. Like a lost boy in search of something he missed. But it didn't last. "What we have between us is different. I've never been drawn to a woman since my wife. It's been so long since my last true relationship with anyone that I don't know how to process my feelings. I turned them off years ago. it"s easier that way."

I nodded, though I didn't pretend to understand. I'd put my feelings first plenty of times in life. Not too long ago when I said ‘no' to Jacob. Everyone deserved to put themselves first sometimes.

"Why do you think we have a bond?" I asked, unsure of what to call it.

Kellan shrugged. "I don't know. Ernest seems to think we're soulmates."

Liking the sound of that, I bit my lower lip and slowly nodded. "Okay. Is that a thing? I mean it is in storybooks back home, but those aren"t real." I glanced around. "But no one would expect this to be real either."

Kellan shifted on the stool. "Apparently. Listen," he leaned forward, "I'm sorry for my ... resistance, but you have to understand it's not because of you, it's because of me."

This time that line worked. It hadn't with the losers that said it to me in the past.

"I believe you."

The trust in that sentence felt unreal. I trusted this man I'd just met, and maybe I was nave, but I didn't care anymore.

Kellan reached forward and grabbed my hand. Playing with my fingers, he said, "I'm-I'm trying. I will continue to try. We have things to figure out, but it may not be until we get back home that we can truly talk about us. Deidamia knows where we are, and I don't know how to handle it. I only escaped last time because she let me."

I didn't know how to answer. The processing of that sentence was thick and lumpy. He was let go before. Besides him saving me at her castle, he'd never successfully escaped her.

Had anyone? I wouldn't know since I wasn't from this realm.

"Has anyone escaped her?" I asked.

Kellan's gaze lifted to mine as he continued to run my finger between his. "I'm not sure. No one in my village survived."

"No one?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "We need to keep our heads above water while we're together. Not get too distracted with one another ... or exploring."

Exploring sounded like exactly what I wanted to do.

"None?" I asked in a whisper.

Kellan kept his dark gaze on my fingers, but I felt his excitement roll through him. Kellan stood up, trapped me against the bed and let his body hover above mine.

His breath spanned across my bottom lip and formed a blanket of need I settled in. "Some," he answered.

Leaving me a quivering mess, he stood up and groaned frustratingly. "I need to speak with Ernest."

I leaned up onto my elbows. "Are you coming back?"

Kellan stepped over toward the doorway but turned back to look at me. "Yes. You need to sleep."

His gaze shifted toward the window. He walked over, locked it and pulled the blinds. "I won't be long. Rest. I'll come back."

Kellan left me sitting on the bed like a lone child. The full-size bed was the only bed in the room. I didn't know what the sleeping arrangements were, but it excited me to find out.

I was getting ahead of myself. I knew that. Kellan was broken. He was healing, and it made me nervous. I wasn't the best person to date a man healing from the death of a family.

My life had been pretty good until recently.

Almost too good.

Part of me wondered how my parents succeeded so easily, but I figured it was old money from my grandparents.

I'd never questioned their success before. It was farfetched to think either of my parents knew about this place and hadn't let on. Or had stolen something from her.

I stood up, walked over to the covers and pulled them back. The softness of the featherdown mattress embraced me when I slid underneath the warmth.

The eager part of me felt like going to see what Ernest had to say about defeating Deidamia.

The other part felt like sleeping in the warmth of blissful ignorance. The distant sound of that stupid crow slithered down my spine.

Who had stolen from Deidamia? What had they stolen from her that was so important?

Couldn't she conjure it up again in her cauldron from Hell?

Maybe it was something priceless. But what was priceless to a witch?