Page 57 of Bad Blood

I nodded, savoring the smile he gave me in return.

It feltlike it took forever for us to make it to the river. It all looked so different from this side of the pit.

“Okay, rule number one—don’t go past that tree there.” He pointed at a tall tree with a thin trunk. There was a face in the bark. He kept pointing, but lowered his hand a little. “That’s my moat pit. Where you—” He made a weird noise, and I glanced down at him. He looked so upset that I put my hand on hishead, trying to reassure him somehow. “Where you fell,” he said quietly.

I patted his head as he cleared his throat and turned toward the water. “Rule number two?—”

“No.”

His brows drew together in confusion. “What?”

“No rules.”

“Okay…why no rules?”

I shook my head. “I don’t like them.”

His confusion turned into amusement, and he laughed. “Well, nobody likes rules, but they’re for your protection.”

I shook my head again, memories of Hunter flashing through my mind.

Rule number one: you disobey me, you die. It’s that simple.

“No rules.”

He studied me carefully, then bit his fat bottom lip.

I wanted to bite it too.

“Okay, how about this—I’ll just tell you things you should be careful of. How’s that? We can call them suggestions instead. Is that better?”

I nodded.

“Okay. Suggestion number two—it seems obvious but I still want to say it—no excessive noise.”

I waited for him to keep going, but he didn’t. He moved toward the water, and memories of him from that first day flashed through my mind.

Him standing naked under the fall of water.

How pretty he’d looked. How sturdy and strong and clean he was.

I wanted to see him naked again. I didn’t care about being clean. I wanted to stay in his arms, wanted him to keep touching me. I was afraid if he stopped, all these good feelings would goaway with him, and I didn’t want to lose them. Not when I’d just found them.

He started to set me down on the ground, and I lunged up, wrapping my arms around his neck and burying my face in his shoulder. His big hands moved across my back in the most soothing strokes, and then he slid one up to the back of my head, tugging gently at my hair.

“It’s okay. It’s just water. You really need to get clean, especially after…” He cleared his throat and didn’t continue.

Why? Why did I need to get clean? I’d never needed to before, and I didn’t know why I needed to now.

He made a strange sound, so I drew back to look at his face, to see what his expression looked like.

He was bright red and wouldn’t meet my eyes. I didn’t understand at all.

“Look, I’ll leave you here and give you some privacy. I’ll be right over there if you need anything, just call for me?—”

I shook my head vehemently. “No. Don’t leave.”

His surprised eyes flashed to mine. “What?”