Chapter 6
1182 Words
That snapped me out of it.
“I...... I.. sorry I didn’t....” I stammered heat rushing to my face.
“Excuse me” he repeated evenly.
Shame hit me full force. I bolted back into the closet, heart racing, face burning. I could’ve sworn I heard a quiet chuckle behind me, but I was too mortified to confirm it.
I leaned against the wall, scolding myself internally.
“I’m such an i***t! Absolute i***t!”
After a while, his voice came again, louder this time.
“I’m done.”
I waited........ longer than necessary. Then I heard the bedroom door open and close.
Relief flooded me as I exhaled at his exit. With a loud exhale I stepped out slowly and screamed.
He was stretched out casually on the bed, one arm behind his head fully dressed now looking at me like I was the strange one.
“Wh- what are you doing here?” I demanded my heart leaping into my throat.
“Ready to sleep.” He responded with a low calm tone.
“Sleep?”
“We can’t share the same bed!” I blurted.
He looked utterly unimpressed.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have a choice.”
I stared at him mouth agape.
“The sitting room will freeze overnight” he continued calmly.
“The fire has to be put out. The cabin wasn’t stocked for guests and this room is the only insulated space.”
My stomach sank.
“I didn’t plan for company” he added a faint hint of amusement in his eyes.
“We’ll have to improvise.”
I didn’t know whether to believe him or not but he was far too calm about this almost........ entertained.
I was Amy’s best friend. He’d known me since I was twelve and even if we barely interacted back then this shouldn’t feel this easy to him.
But my alternatives were freezing downstairs or sleeping on an ice cold floor.
So I moved closer to the bed, stiff and hesitant while he went back to scrolling on his phone like I didn’t exist which somehow made it even worse.
I lay stiff on the far edge of the bed staring at the wooden ceiling every nerve in my body lit up as well. The cabin was quiet except for the storm raging outside and the slow controlled sound of his breathing beside me.
Rhage lay on his back relaxed and unbothered as if sharing a bed with his daughter’s best friend wasn’t enough to set the world on fire.
The heater hummed softly in the wall pushing out warm air but my skin still burned not from the cold but from him.
The space between us was so small and I could feel his heat steady and overwhelming, seeping into me like a living thing.
“Stop moving,” he said calmly.
I froze.
“I wasn’t—”
“The bed.” he cut in with a low voice.
“You’re shaking it.”
My jaw tightened then I turned my head just enough to glare at him but he wasn’t looking at me. His gaze was fixed on the ceiling his hands folded behind his head like this was torture only for me.
“ i can sleep on the floor if im disturbing.” I muttered.
“No.”
Thick silence followed the storm outside roared louder, the wind howling against the cabin walls, and instinctively, stupidly, I flinched and that was when it happened.
My elbow brushed his forearm. The contact was brief, barely there but my body reacted like it had been struck by fire.
After a few mins his breathing changed, slower and deeper.
He turned his head not fully, just a bit.
“You’re doing it again.” he murmured.
“Doing what?” I whispered afraid to hear the answer.
“Pretending you don’t feel this.”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“I don’t know what you think you’re feeling” I said forcing strength into my voice.
“but I’m not—”
“You are.” His voice dropped cutting me short.
“And so am I.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, turning onto my side without thinking and straight into him.
My chest brushed his arms, my knee sliding against his thigh. I gasped softly, panic twisting in my stomach.
For the first time, he moved. He rolled onto his side facing me. We were inches apart and extremely close.
His eyes were darker in the low light, the storm reflecting in them like something feral barely leashed. His gaze dragged over my face slowly,my eyes, my mouth, before locking back onto mine.
“Sleep” he said quietly.
I laughed breathless and shaken
“You think that’s possible?”
His lips curved.
“No.”
Then His hand lifted but stopped midair, with a deep sigh it dropped back onto the mattress, fist clenching like it took effort.
“Which is why” he continued voice rougher now
“we keep our hands to ourselves.”
Then a long pause.
“Unless” he added softly.
“you want me to stop pretending.”
My pulse thundered and i shook my head immediately.
“No.”
His gaze searched my face, intense, almost pained.
“Good.” he said after a moment turning away again.
“Because if I start........”
He didn’t finish, he didn’t need to cos I already knew the answer to that.
I layed there, heart racing, body buzzing, staring into the dark, acutely aware that sleep was the last thing either of us would get this night.
My wolf stirred uneasily, aware, alert and suddenly my body reacted all over again, warmth pooling low in my belly, pulse betraying me.
“No, please not again!” I cried out to my wolf in my mind.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but that only made it worse. My mind betrayed me instantly, images of his hands, his strength, the way his body flexed when he moved, the way he’d looked at me earlier like he was holding himself back by sheer will alone spread the heat through me like wild fire.
I shifted slightly, trying to create space, but the mattress also betrayed me, dipping again exactly what he complained of earlier and that was all it took.
He growled lowly, not threatening but also dangerously restrained.
“Liana.” he said voice rough warning threading through every syllable.
I swallowed hard so hard my throat ached.
“I—I’m not doing anything.”
His chest rose and fell heavier, shoulders rigid, as if every instinct in him was screaming one command and he was forcing it down with brute strength.
“I can smell you and if you don’t stop I won’t be able to hold him back anymore.”
“I’m sorry” I whispered lowly before quickly turning to the other side away from him shaking, skin on fire, staring at my hands totally aware that something irreversible had just shifted between us.
- Writer
