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“That’s what you’re going with,” she deadpans. “Really?”

“Doesn’t that seem like a more probable explanation than you falling asleep next to—what did you say it was again?”

“You’re seriously trying to gaslight me right now?”

“Me? I would never.”

“You’re doing it right now.”

“I think maybe you hit your head, lass.”

This only makes her angrier, her cheeks growing even pinker, impossibly. “Are youactuallytrying to pull an Edward Cullen on me?”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“I did not hit my fucking head! Iknowwhat I saw.”

I shift to pull myself up to standing, and her eyes immediately avert so she isn’t looking at my naked form, but not before a flush creeps down her neck.

“I saw you floating in the water last night,” I tell her, keeping mytone even. “I warned you about the rocks, but it seems you didn’t listen. I hear a bump on the head can cause all sorts of trouble with your memory. There’s a doctor in town…I could drive you there, if you want?”

“So the story you’re sticking with is that you saved my dumb ass from drowning after I fell off a rock,” she says.

I shrug. “Not a story if it’s true.”

“And you’re naked because…?”

“Didn’t want to get my clothes wet, now did I? I must have passed out from the effort. Saving people is hard work.”

She peeks back at me, her eyes narrowed. “Really?”

“Really, really,” I answer earnestly, trying not to smile at her angry expression.

I can tell how hard she’s trying not to look at all of me, and I can’t help the way I widen my stance slightly, spreading my legs to plant both feet firmly in the sand as I cross my arms over my chest. It does what I intend; her cheeks flame and her eyes train pointedly on my face, but it only takes a second for them to stray, and when they do, a sly, pleased smile crosses her face.

“If you like the look of me that much,” I tease, “you’re welcome to take a gander as long as you like.”

“You wish,” she scoffs. But then she takes a step closer, one delicate brow lifting as her expression turns smug. “So you saved me.”

“Aye, I did,” I tell her, watching her advance cautiously.

She nods, pressing her lips together as if considering. “And I just imagined the Loch Ness Monster.”

“It’s not the first time it’s happened,” I say. “No need to be embarrassed.”

“Huh.” Her jaw works, and the quirk of her lips spells trouble, but it doesn’t hit me how much until she says, “Then what’s this?”

Her fingers skirt along my shoulder, her touch eliciting a prickling sensation followed by a rush of warmth that I don’t have the time to analyze, because seconds after, a dull ache echoes there.

“Fuck,” I hiss.

She pokes at the pinker skin that looks new, like it’s just stitched itself back together, but even though it’s not nearly as raw as it should be, there is still a clear pattern of a bite, now shrunk to match my smaller frame. I frown at it, both confused by the state of it and irritated that it gives Key more reason to fight me on this, and when I glance back at her, there is triumph in her eyes.

“Iknowwhat I saw,” she says firmly.

I run through a number of excuses, trying to graspanyother solution to offer her that doesn’t involve me spilling a secret that spans back centuries—but as little as I know this woman, I still think that this is not something she is just going to let go. It seems I have very few choices here.

I take a deep breath, expelling it slowly.