Page 11

“Okay, folks, show’s over. Buy a ticket if you want to see the rest,” I called out, callousness coating my embarrassment. Anger followed the embarrassment, like it usually did.Fuck them.

“Take a fucking minute to recover,” the man on top of me demanded, with the tone of someone who was used to being obeyed.

“Don’t tell me what to do. Back off,” I said coolly.

I stood when he loosened his hold and nearly fell immediately.

“Fucking hell, get a grip before you crack your head on the tile,” he scolded.

I stared at him where he knelt on the wet ground, and he stared right back. I glanced down his body. His clothes were all wet.He jumped into the water for me?His soaked T-shirt and jeans would certainly indicate so.

Then there was the rather obvious outline of his dick, jutting out against the wet denim. He was huge, but then, I’d already gotten that impression from the library.

“Worry about yourself, thanks. I’m fine.” I glared pointedly down at his straining hard-on. Wasn’t he embarrassed? Nope, he didn’t seem to be at all. Arrogant asshole.

I turned around, about to stagger gracelessly away, when his cool, mocking voice reached me.

“How about a fucking ‘thank you,’ then? You godless heathen.”

I glanced back over my shoulder, about to respond, when a small scream made me jump.

“Oh my God! What happened?!” Then Winter was there, pulling me into her arms, ignoring my wet clothes soaking through her designer silk.

“I’m fine,” I mumbled, my voice lost in her hair as she hugged my head.

“Ash, take us home, now,” she threw over her shoulder.

And then Asher was there, shrugging out of his jacket to give it to me.

I staggered a little, and Winter’s arm went under mine, supporting me.

Asher took the other side. I glanced back at the guy kneeling on the tiles, soaked to the bone. Watching me go with narrowed eyes.

In the dream, it was always the same. Every night, it came. Plucked straight from a past I spent my days trying to forget. There was only one difference… The cold.

In real life, when they’d held me down, there’d been a roaring fire at one end of the room. The surface under me had been leather, and I remembered the feeling of my own desperately sweating skin sliding against it. Despite my memory of that heat, the nightmare was always cold.

They hold me down, and I am freezing. My skin is solid. They press the hot metal of the brand into my forearm, and this time,there is no smell of burning skin. There is no sizzle on contact, though the pain is there. The heat is not.

I suppose even in my dreams, I cannot deny what I have become.

A person frozen in time, encased in ice, the not-quite dead. Not yet anyway.

It warmed my chilly, dead heart to think that maybe tomorrow, I’d wake up and remedy that little problem. There was always tomorrow to die. The thought gave me comfort like nothing else.

Thank God for that.

I woke with a start in the spare room of Winter and Asher’s off-campus apartment.

My whole body hurt after last night. I was hungover, and worse, I’d passed out with wet hair, and now, my head felt stuffy. I’d caught a cold for being an idiot. Oh well, I’d suffered worse consequences for being stupid before.

I got up and took a shower, my nose dripping like a tap after. Winter and Asher had gone, and my bestie had left me a note by the coffee machine.

Breakfast in the fridge. Eat well, drink coffee, and go back to bed xx

I did just as she instructed, except for the going back to bed part. I felt too guilty to lie around all day. My phone had rung about ten times since I’d woken up. I checked the display, my suspicions confirmed. My mom was calling nonstop. It had to be important. I really couldn’t put her off any longer. I got my stuffand left Winter’s apartment, pulling the door firmly shut behind me.

“Selena, where are you?”