Page 32 of Vengeance and Vipers

Can’t argue with that.

He rises and goes into said bathroom. I hear the water start up again, and I wonder how long we have until one of the other members of the clan barges in to find us, regardless of what Krase says. Maddox will know we’re missing soon.

While Krase isn’t in the room, I dry off and get the excess water out of my hair.

I lay on the bed for a bit, closing my eyes. It’s soft, and I like it at first, but then I think about how it feels a little like the fluffy floor of the web bunker that Siggy made for me.

I sit up with a shuddering breath, not wanting to think about her and break down right now.

The water goes off, and Krase comes out of the bathroom a minute later.

I swallow hard. He looks how he did before he went nuts. His red curls are wet and shorter now. The matted beard is gone. He has a small towel wrapped around his waist that opens a little as he walks, and I make myself look higher only to see a drop of water fall from the end of one curly lock and make its way down his chest to one very chiseled peck. My eyes dip again without them meaning to. There’s a shit ton of abs down there leading to a pleasure trail I’d love to …

‘Are you staying in here too?’ I blurt.

‘For now,’ he says carefully. ‘Maddox won’t be happy that he’s not in control anymore.’

I snort.That’s an understatement.

He walks closer, the towel flapping a little and giving me glimpses of …

I clear my throat hard, trying to get a handle on this desire I have to lick him all over.

‘And you aren’t having murderous thoughts about me anymore?’ I ask.

I hope he is so I can give myself a proverbial slap in the face for my thoughts and then start planning my escape.

‘No, notmurderousones.’

My heart skips a beat.

Get a hold of yourself. He tried to kill you today!

‘But how can it change that fast?’ I ask. ‘What happens when you go all demon-crazy and choke me out again, and I don’t have the tacturn to save me?’

Instead of answering me, he gives me an indulgent smile that makes my eyes narrow. He beckons me to him.

‘Sit on the bed,’ he says, but it’s more of a question, not a demand.

I do as he asks because itwasn’tan order and because I want to be closer to him. But I don’t want him to know that. I sit next to him gingerly, trying not to touch him even though I want to.

He laughs.

‘No, with your back to me.’

‘Why?’

He shows me what’s in his hand. A hairbrush. I tilt my head at him, but, for some reason, I indulge him further, shifting so I’m sitting cross-legged in front of him and wondering what this is, where it’s going to go.

Where do I want it to go? Why am I feeling like this? Another trick? I wouldn’t put it past him. Even in non-nuts form, he must still hate me as much as the others do. I have to remember that.

But then he begins to tease the tangles out. He starts at the bottom of my matted hair, working out the knots gently, taking care not to pull it. Minutes go by. He works slowly upwards, patiently until it’s done, and when he is, I feel like …

I glance back at him, not sure what I feel, actually.

‘You like this,’ he murmurs, and I can’t help my tiny nod, blinking back insidious tears.

I do like it.