Misted (Team Zero #5) by Rina Kent

I blow the smoke in her mouth and she swallows it all and visibly reigns in the coughs. My forefinger drags along the teardrop of her upper lip and she leans into me, skin heating and pupils dilating.

It’d be so easy to crash my mouth to hers and devour her, but something keeps holding me back.

Like the fact that if she gets the chance to run, she’ll never look back.

I pull away, leaving her with a pout and hurt written all over her soft features. But instead of leaving her be, I drag her between my open legs and cage her in. Her back leans against my chest until I can inhale lilac from her hair.

There’ll be no running away. This time, I’ll cage her like I wasn’t able to all those years ago.





23





Mist





My damnation. My salvation. And everything in between.



“I’m out!” I pant, toppling down to the sand on my back.

We’ve been running for two hours straight on the beach, and my muscles scream at me to stop torturing them already.

The shaking has subsided, but I’m still a bit dizzy and hazy. Since the festival a week ago, Hawk has been making me run with him in the mornings and evenings.

I barely managed half an hour the first day, but my stamina has been slowly escalating.

Wearing tight shorts and a sports bra, I’m barefoot so the sand serves as a natural ground.

A broad shadow looms over me as Hawk looks down on me with his massive arms crossed over his chest from where the hawk tattoo hugs his collarbone.

The view from this angle makes him as big and solid as a God. A sex-god — to be more specific. The main reason why I haven’t bailed out on these running sessions is that I get to watch his half-naked glory every day.

When I’m an extra good girl, I touch him, too. This is one of those times I wish he’d take me against the sand. But I dread the moment he’ll pull away from me. Whenever we’re too intimate to the point I feel our bodies moulding into one, he completely withdraws into his world. One that I have no access to.

“How will you escape me with those weak legs?” he asks in a disapproving tone.

“There’s a tiny invention called a car.” I wipe the sweat off my forehead and try not to get too caught in his nearness. My thighs are already clenching together and I don’t need any more stimuli.

“Smart mouth,” he mutters under his breath.

I grin, feeling so utterly liberated during my withdrawal hell. Despite all the problems from our past, Hawk is still the only person I feel so free and comfortable to talk with about anything.

He grabs my arm and pulls me to my feet.

“No, no…” I grumble at the thought of running again.

I gasp when he throws me over his shoulder as if I weigh a feather and spanks my arse. A moan rips from me as my insides liquefy into smothering heat.

His cavemen ways always get me into an inexplicable, startled knot. My eyes bulge as his wide strides cut a long distance into the azure, deep water.

Oh. Shit.

It doesn’t take him long for the water to reach his waist. I cling into him as the lukewarm water touches my toes.

“Hawk?”

I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I never swam before. I just enjoy the view from a distance and that’s it. He was supposed to teach me how to swim.

My arms wrap around his neck in a death grip as the water reaches over his pectoral muscles. If he puts me to my feet, I’ll drown. It doesn’t help that I can’t see the bottom at this depth. Do they have sharks in the Mediterranean?

“Hawk… let’s return…”

Every splash of water against my skin is like razor-sharp knives slicing through me.

My legs wrap around his strong waist as I envelop his nape with all my might until I’m sure I scraped his skin.

“What do you think you’re doing, damn you?”

“We’ll talk.” He continues battling through the water until it reaches our necks. “You talk better when you’re scared.”

“I’m not scared,” I say with nonchalance. “What do you want to talk about?”

His blue eyes turn cold as he pins me down with a chilling stare. “What are you hiding?”

“Hiding?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. Your fury, your anger, and your damn existence have always been mine. Do you think I don’t know you’ve been hiding something?” He stops when the water grazes my chin.

I helplessly try to climb up his body, but he pins both my hips down under the water.

“I’m not hiding anything.”

How stupid was I to think he wouldn’t notice? He’s as perceptive about me as I am about him. We’re two facets of the same coin.

“Do you like having me as your enemy, is that it?”

I thin my lips in a stony line. Having him as an enemy is a nightmare but it’s no worse than the alternative.

“Unless you tell me…” He trails off in a low growl. “I’ll continue hating you, torturing you, and making both our lives fucking hell.”

Tears rim my eyelids no matter how much I try to blink them away. I’m in the middle of a deserted beach hugging the one person that ever mattered to me, but I can’t tell him anything. Do I have to watch him hate me until the end of my days?

No. If Ink comes out, it won’t be long before I confess everything.