“You’ll get hurt. Gemma’s tough. The answer is no.”
“You’re not the boss of me.” Why did he think he could tell me what to do? I muttered beneath my breath while I shoved everything back into the fridge and slammed the door. When I turned, I ran right into a solid wall of Sam.
“You scared me today,” he said quietly. “When I pulled you to shore you weren’t breathing, your lips were blue…” I laid my palm against his chest. “All I could think about was that if it weren’t for me, none of this would have happened.”
“This is not your fault.”
“I’ve brought a lot of evil into your life.”
I wrapped my arms around his waist. “You’ve brought a lot of love.”
“I have to do this. I have to be the one to train with Gemma. I’m the one who brought the evil. I’m going to be the one to take it away. Your job is to stay alive.”
Learning how to defend myself would make that a lot easier, but clearly he wasn’t going to listen, especially after I almost drowned and was standing here wanting pain relievers. I tipped my head back to ask, “Want to walk up to the orchard?” Maybe a change in scenery would do us good.
He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “First, make some hot tea for your throat. We never did get anything.”
Hot tea did sound good so I heated the water and added a generous amount of honey. Sam offered me a bite of his sandwich but the thought of eating made me queasy. When he wasn’t looking I quickly downed a few pain relievers because my head was still pounding. The pressure on the back of my skull was uncomfortable. A vision of beady red eyes flashed before me and I gasped, dropping the bottle of pills.
Sam was at my side immediately. “What?”
“Nothing,” I said, scooping the pills up and shoving them in the cupboard.
“Maybe you should lie down.”
“No! I’m fine. I want to walk with you.”
The orchard was showing promise for bountiful apples in the fall. Sam and I worked hard these past couple of weeks to get it where it needed to be and the work was paying off. The twisting apple trees were full of leaves and blossoming fruit. This spot was special to Sam and me, our haven where we could come to be alone and get away from all the drama in our lives. But right now, it was hard to appreciate its full beauty because Sam was scanning everywhere with his eyes. I hated that we could never relax, that danger seemed to stalk us at every turn.
“We should talk,” I said, stopping at the top of the hill to look out upon the rows of trees. The only way I knew to make things any easier would be to come up with some sort of plan. If I could convince Gemma to train me, then it would be one more line of defense.
“Don’t want to,” Sam murmured behind me, his hand releasing the band that held back my hair. Soft strands fell around me, brushing my cheeks. He took my hand and we walked farther into the orchard. About halfway in, he stopped and sat beneath a tree pulling me down with him.
“This has to stop, all this worrying,” I whispered. His warm breath against my neck was intoxicating, making it hard to think.
“I’m not worrying right now,” he breathed the words against my neck, his lips grazing me ever so lightly.
I had to stay focused.
“I want to train with you and Gemma.” My voice wavered, not sounding as strong as I wanted it to.
I was tucked as tightly as possible between his thighs with every inch of my back pressed against his front. His knees were drawn up, making a cocoon for me and his arms were wound tightly around me just beneath my breasts. Sam drew one hand up to brush the hair farther to the side, exposing even more of the sensitive flesh on my neck. “Sam.” I tried to be firm.
“No,” he said, like that was the end of it. Then he pressed a gentle kiss just behind my ear. “You’re the one that said we need to relax more; that’s what I am doing…”
“You can’t turn my words around on me.”
His hair had grown longer these past short weeks and now the messy locks tickled my cheek. He pressed his face into my neck and inhaled. When he blew out the breath, he scraped his teeth over the back of my neck.
I groaned, frustrated that he wasn’t really listening to what I was saying, but was briefly distracted because I sensed a small rush of anxiety and adrenaline pumping through him, but then it was gone, and he turned my face to the side and began kissing me. I turned completely around, folding my knees into my chest and faced him.
“Closer,” he urged, tugging me even closer.
When our lips met again, he moved suddenly, grabbing me, swiftly tucking me beneath him and lowering his body to brush against mine. The grass was soft against my back and it was warm, heated from the sun. The scent of him, strong, heady and deep mixed with the fragrant sweet, budding apples overhead acted as a balm to everything that had happened that day.
I loved this boy. More than myself. More than life. More than anything. Tears leaked from beneath my lids because my feelings were so intense that they had nowhere else to go, there just wasn’t room in a single body for how I felt for him.
He kissed me fiercely, his lips slanting over mine with deep hungry aggression. Our bodies moved against one another… searching. Just as Sam was relaxing, his head snapped up. He was breathing hard, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He rose above me with his eyes closed and jaw locked.
“Hey,” I murmured, stroking the side of his unshaven jaw.
He tilted his head down and his eyes popped open. They were pure gold, flashing brilliantly.
I gasped.
Before I knew it, he was beneath the apple tree next to me, and the breeze from the trees was brushing against my fevered skin. I watched him blink several times and take a deep breath before looking up at me. The shocking gold of his eyes was gone.
“I’m sorry.” He sounded like he swallowed gravel.
“What happened?” My heart was still thundering in my chest.
“I—That was intense. I didn’t mean…” He swallowed. “My emotions and your emotions were bleeding together and…”
“It’s all right.” I held my hands out palms up. I wanted to go to him, but I was unsure if that’s what he wanted. “A lot has been going on.”
He shook his head as if he was trying to clear it. He looked up at me, puzzled. “You’re feeling all right?”
I nodded.
“You’d tell me if anything was wrong?”