“What?” she squeaked, her voice just above a whisper. Both she and Dylan glanced over at Kuvi’s bed. Shit. Kuvi was sitting up partially, rubbing her eyes and staring incredulously at the vision of Dylan Fall standing in their cabin.
“Sorry to wake you,” Dylan apologized. “This will just take a moment. Alice?” he addressed Alice levelly. “I waited until the camp was quiet, but I’m not going to wait anymore.”
“You can’t just break in here and expect me to get up and go with you!” Alice exclaimed, barely managing to keep her voice at a low volume.
“I do expect it. Because that’s what we agreed to, wasn’t it?” he asked quietly, taking a step toward her, the glint of anger in his shining dark eyes making her skin roughen in trepidation and mounting excitement. Yes. Excitement. The sight of him in her cabin, so solid and beautiful and demanding thrilled her, despite it all. “I agreed to let you go on as if everything was normal, as long as you agreed you’d spend the nights and weekends with me up at the castle. You’ve broken your promise tonight.”
She glanced anxiously at Kuvi, who was now watching their tense exchange with wide hazel eyes.
“You don’t have to worry about Alice,” Dylan said to Kuvi, a small smile curling his mouth. “She made an agreement with me.”
Alice gritted her teeth in the silence that followed as both of them looked at her expectantly. “I’m not going with you,” she insisted.
“Would you like me to carry you?” Her anxiety ramped up when she couldn’t gauge if he was joking or not.
“Just try it,” she hissed.
“Maybe you’d prefer I spent the night here then?” Dylan asked, taking another step toward her bed.
She cursed under her breath and threw off the covers.
“Convenient of you to go to bed dressed,” Dylan said when she stood jerkily, his gaze running over the length of her in what struck Alice as an insolent manner. He was insinuating she’d known he was going to come and claim her like some kind of caveman. She was wearing a pair of soft running shorts and a T-shirt.
“It’s what I wear to bed.”
His slight shrug seemed to say it all. Not anymore, you don’t. He knew perfectly well she didn’t wear a thing to bed when she was with him.
“Alice?” Kuvi asked uncertainly.
“It’s okay,” Alice assured, glaring at Dylan all the while. Kuvi couldn’t know that she and Dylan verbally sparred like this at times, and that it was harmless.
Well. Relatively speaking, anyway.
She stalked over to the bathroom and shut the door behind her with a muted bang. She’d left her tennis shoes in there earlier. Let Dylan stew in uncertainty about what she was doing. He was far too smug in his confidence that she’d go with him.
He was far too right.
After she’d washed her hands and face unnecessarily, she swung open the bathroom door now wearing socks and shoes. Dylan glanced over her, pausing in whatever he’d just been saying to Kuvi. Her roommate sat up in bed, her sheet fastened beneath her armpits. She looked much more calm and was even smiling. Whatever Dylan had been saying had reassured her.
Dylan’s gaze dipped to her tennis shoes.
“Kuvi said you’d told her about us. If you trust her, I do. She told me where your keys were,” Dylan said, holding up Alice’s key ring. “We’ll lock up behind us.”
Alice gave Kuvi a “thanks a lot, traitor” glance. Kuvi made a helpless face and shrugged. Alice rolled her eyes. She couldn’t really blame her roommate. Not many could resist Dylan’s charm and smoldering good looks when put to the test.
She certainly couldn’t, she acknowledged to herself bitterly as her hand slid into his and Dylan shut out the light. No matter how high the stakes, she couldn’t say no to him for long.
She followed him out of the cabin, their hushed, furtive movements once again joining them somehow. The power of their shared bond seemed to vibrate in the still air as they moved stealthily down the path to the coverage of the woods. Or maybe it was the knowledge of Dylan’s anger and concern in regard to her edgy behavior today and her own highly volatile state that added to the sense of electricity crackling between them. Her anxiety boiled up in her until she couldn’t suppress it anymore. She halted, pulling on Dylan’s hand once they reached the unlit trail leading toward the stables.
“Don’t ever do that again,” she challenged quietly.
“Don’t you ever do that again. Defy me if it makes you feel more in control, Alice, but don’t think I’m going to roll over if you deny me this.”
She swallowed thickly at his quick, succinct reply. It’d obviously been right on the tip of his tongue. He’d made it clear he would only agree to her resuming her life as a counselor at Camp Durand if she spent her nights with him at Castle Durand. She was reminded yet again of how anxious he’d been for her safety. Not just tonight.
For twenty years of his life.
Dylan seemed bizarrely convinced that a threat to her safety still remained. It was like after all those years of worrying, he couldn’t stop the habit now.