Page 27 of Winter Unleashed

“It’s okay. I feel fine.”

“Still, I can leave if you want to change. Or I can help with whatever you need,” he said, his voice thick with concern as he moved to take my arm.

“Um… I have to pee,” I said, laughing when his eyes widened. “I think I can handle that on my own, but thanks for the offer to help. Maybe after I’ve gotten to know you a little better.”

He grunted. “I see some of your snarkiness is coming back.”

“Hmm, I guess it is.” I smiled up at him and when he still frowned down at me, I touched my fingers to his lips. “Stop frowning like that. You look like a character out of a Brontë novel.”

“Which one?” he asked.

Desire flamed to life at the feel of his lips against my fingers. “Does it matter? Rochester or Heathcliff, they were both dark and brooding. Though, I fell madly in love with Mr. Rochester, so it’s probably in your best interest to keep frowning.” I took a shuddering breath when he pressed a kiss to my fingers, and the warmth of his lips against my cool skin sent those flames of desire into a roaring inferno. “Uh, pee. I still have to pee.”

His fingers circled my wrist and slowly lowered my hand. “Go.”

I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off him as I walked to the en suite bathroom. After I peed and washed my hands, I stared down at the pajama top I’d thrown onto the counter. A grin played on my lips when I left it there and went back into the room. He hadn’t moved, and I felt the weight of his gaze as he watched me walk back to the bed. When I was under the covers, he stepped closer.

“I should leave. Stella and Isaac are both here if you need anything,” he said.

“You framed the picture of my mom.” I smiled up at him. “Thank you.”

“It was nothing.” His eyes darkened when I licked my lips.

“It was something. It was something big,” I said with a smile. I told him about my thinking it was Celeste who’d given me the photo and told me about my mom. “Was it really you?”

He shook his head. “No. Astrid.”

“Oh. I’ll have to thank her one day.”

“You already have.” His voice was thick and husky, and the weight of his gaze was doing things to me no man had ever done just by looking at me. Hell, it was doing things to me no man had done with their hands, mouths, or cocks. There was something special about Liam Fraser.

In a rare moment of shyness, I looked down and toyed with the corner of the sheet. “Celeste told me she’ll be back for me. That I need her and just don’t realize it yet. That she’s enjoying the pain she’s bringing me and my loved ones.”

“Oh?” The word came out on an exhale.

“She said it after I realized she was putting something in my food. I think it’s what’s causing my memory loss, or at least part of it. I’d bet anything it’s what brings on the nightmares.”

“Astrid said something similar. She gave you an antidote. She didn’t promise anything, but if it works, you shouldn’t have another nightmare.”

I licked my lips and looked back up at him. “I believe you. About everything. I believe there’s something more to us. Something huge and meaningful.”

As if in a trance, he took another step toward the bed before he caught himself. “I should leave,” he said again.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I moved aside and lifted the covers. “Or you could stay,” I whispered.

Surprise passed over his face. “Are you sure? If you want me to stay, I can go back to the chair.”

“I want you to stay, but you looked so uncomfortable in that chair. You’re too big for it. Get in. I won’t bite.”

“That’s a shame,” he said with a slight growl.

I pouted a little. “Disappointed? Well, let’s just see how things go.”

He growled again and raised his hands to the top button of his shirt. “Is this okay?” he asked, waiting for my response.

I nodded, mesmerized as I watched him reveal a bronzed, thickly muscled chest. Without realizing what I was doing, I rose to my knees and moved to the edge of the bed. His eyelids fluttered a little when I danced my fingers over the hawk tattooed on his arm, then the owl on his chest. As if I couldn’t control their movement, my fingers toyed with his chest hair.

“You have two tattoos. Neither of them are your pack’s mark,” I said, staring at the hawk.