Chapter 13
I woke with an ache in my shoulder that I tried to stretch out. When my arm didn’t move, my eyes snapped open. I jerked up in bed, as far as my bindings would let me go anyway and glared at the vine still wrapped around my wrist.
Right, I was in Blackthorn’s room. He’d caught me trying to climb out of my bedroom window. Not my stealthiest moment.
Blinking against the dim light of the room, I waited for my eyes to adjust before settling on the form on the bed next to me. His dark hair splayed across the bed, his pale pink face relaxed and almost innocent in his sleep. I wanted to slap his perfectly handsome face.
As if hearing my thoughts, his lips parted as he let out a long breath, his chest moving up and down with the movement.
He had removed his cloak and was only in a shirt, the neck of it opened to show quite an expansion of pale pink skin.
I forced my eyes to focus on the movement of his chest and not the male chest in front of me.
Vampires breathed? Who figured? I always thought they were more like the undead. No breath. No heartbeat.
Wait... if he could breathe, then did he have a heartbeat too?
My irritation at the situation wavered as my curiosity took over. I shifted on the bed closer to him, briefly realizing that I was under the covers when I strictly remember not being before I fell asleep. Shoving that thought aside, I moved closer until my thigh pressed up against his arm.
I waited for Blackthorn to wake. He didn’t even flinch.
Slowly, I leaned over him, eyes flicking up to his face as I lowered my head down, my arm straining against the vine holding my wrist. I pressed my ear to his chest, listening for the telltale beat of his heart. When I heard it, I jerked back, but a hand touched the side of my head.
I froze.
“If you wanted to cuddle all you had to do was ask.”
I scowled and pushed at his hand. “That’s not what I was doing.”
Blackthorn allowed me to sit up as he arched a brow, his lips twitching at the edges. “Then pray tell, what were you doing?”
How did I tell him I wanted to know if he had a heartbeat without sounding like a crazy person?
“I was... just checking something,” I explained, wincing because even I knew it was a flimsy excuse.
“Oh?” Blackthorn’s amusement shone through in that one word. “Is that so? Well, do not let me stop you from continuing with your research. I am at your disposal.”
I snorted. “I’m good.” I tugged on my arm. “Can you release me? This thing is kind of hurting my wrist.”
Blackthorn leaned up on his elbow, turning to face me. “Are you going to try to run away again?”
I just stared at him.
What was I supposed to say? No. That would be a lie. We both knew I wanted to leave and the moment he released me I would be plotting a way to escape.
Blackthorn took my silence as my answer. With a sigh and a shake of his head, he shifted to sit on the side of the bed.
“Then I have no choice but to keep you tied up.”
Anxiety ate at me. How would this affect the spell? It was only happy if I was trying to leave. Being tied to his bed made it next to impossible for me to do that.
“Can you at least lengthen it? I’m not going to be able to sit comfortably this way, and what if I have to go to the bathroom? Should I just do my business here?” I gestured at the bed with a knowing expression.
Blackthorn stopped on my side of the bed, his brows bunched together in thought.
Then after a moment, the vine around my wrist disappeared.
I cried out in relief, rubbing the sore flesh.
I barely had a second to rejoice in my freedom before a vine wrapped around my ankle, its length burrowing into the ground.
“There, you may now walk around the room and reach the bathroom. But nowhere else.” He gave me a pointed look. “Fran will be here shortly with your breakfast and a change of clothes. She is quite distraught that you tried to leave.”
Guilt hit me like a ton of bricks.
Fran had been nothing but kind to me. I could only imagine how she felt knowing I had tried to leave.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to explain to her that it wasn’t her that made me leave.
Could I trust her with the knowledge of my agreement with Rumple?
Or would she try to convince me to stay too?
All I could do was watch Blackthorn as he moved around the room. He stepped into his bathroom, leaving me alone for a long while. When he came out again, his hair was damp, and he wore a towel low around his waist.
I jerked my eyes away from his exposed skin, my cheeks and ears burning.
“Oh, so you can touch me while I’m sleeping, but this embarrasses you?” The humor in his voice told me he was no doubt smirking at me. Something I wasn’t going to chance checking for myself.
I kept my eyes averted until another door clicked open and shut. A few minutes later, Blackthorn walked out of what I assumed was his closet, his fingers buttoning the new long-sleeved black shirt he’d put on.
“Do you own any other colors?” I asked, unable to hold back my snark after the night I’d had.
Blackthorn looked up from buttoning his cufflinks. “Does the color offend you?”
I crossed one leg over the other, arms wrapped around my middle. “Not in particular, but you’d think someone who’d been alive for...?” I trailed off, looking at him expectantly.
His lips curled up on one side. “Is this your way of asking how old I am?”
Leaning back on my hands, I let my leg bounce up and down.
“Well, I know you have to be at least fifty ‘cause Cookie said it’d been that long since he’d been to the capital.
” I cocked my head to the side. “Why don’t you allow your servants to leave?
Surely there are things they can’t make themselves here—”
“Enough.”
My mouth clipped shut, shoulders stiffening at the harsh tone of his voice. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
He stalked across the room, invading my personal space. “What I do with my servants is my business. Do not question things you don’t understand.”
So much for the playful Blackthorn from this morning. He was so touchy about certain subjects. Maybe it had something to do with that woman in the painting. I’d have asked him about it, but I feared he’d bite my head off.
“Now,” Blackthorn stepped back, cracking his neck, “I have things to take care of. Fran will be here shortly to attend to you. I advise you to not think about escaping again.”
I glared up at him beneath furrowed brows. “I will find a way out of here. You can’t keep me here forever.”
Blackthorn cocked his head to the side. “Watch me.”