I hopped off the medical table, trying to ignore the wave of dizziness that overtook me. “Looks like you liked it yourself,” I challenged. His face was flushed.
“I…I was just…” he mumbled, backing away from me.
He had liked it. Some part of him remembered what it was like to touch me. I stood as straight as I could. I didn’t care that he was a chosen one. I didn’t care that he couldn’t remember our time together. I walked right up to him. “What part of it did you like? The way it felt to touch me? Or the fact that you were doing something they told you was so wrong? Or was it both?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
James’s face paled as he gulped. I reached a hand toward him, stopping just short of placing it against his chest. “I can do it some more. I just need you to help me a little,” I whispered.
“Get away from me,” he said.
“What is this map you’re looking for? Why is it so important? If you tell me, I’ll let you do it again,” I promised, placing my hand against his chest. His heart pounded beneath my palm. I could feel my own heart beating to keep pace with his. “I can tell you want me to,” I whispered.
James wrapped a hand around my wrist but he didn’t pull me away from his chest. “I…I need you to stop doing that.”
I licked my lips. Abrams had been right. Women had all sorts of power. “Is that really what you want me to do? Come on…just a few answers, and we could have so much fun.”
In a quick succession of movements, James yanked on my wrist and twisted me around. He pushed my head painfully against the counter while holding my arm against my back. “You will never speak of this again to anyone. Not a word.”
Before I could open my mouth to reply, James was gone.
Chapter 27
I woke up when a hand clamped over my mouth.
I grabbed my assailant’s wrist, pulling with all of my might. It was too dark to see who was in my room with me. My heart screamed for someone to hear its pounding as I dug my nails into the skin of the person who held me down. Suddenly, the room was lit up.
James. A wild thought broke through my sleep-muddled mind—had he come into my room to kill me? He had lured me into the medical station in an attempt to get me to spy on his creator’s son. It hadn’t been about dressing my wound. But he had felt emotion when he touched me, and I wondered if he would do something to ensure he never allowed that weakness in again.
He brought a finger to his lips and nodded toward my bedroom door. I managed to lift my head and look over to the bed where Regan slept, but she was nowhere to be found. A sick thought slithered into my head: had James done something to her?
I lay my head back down on the pillow and stared up at him. James slowly lifted his hand from my mouth. He leaned over me and pressed his lips against my ear, and I tried to suppress the shudder that ran through me. It was as if my body didn’t know this man before me was no longer my James, but, then again, my mind wasn’t entirely sure either.
“I need you to come with me. Can you do that without screaming?”
I nodded, and James held out his hand to help me off the bed. I took it and a rush of warmth ran up my arm. The minute I was standing, he let go. My hand had never felt emptier.
I spun around when he turned away from me and grabbed the map from under my pillow, sticking it inside my nightgown. I didn’t trust that Terrance or George wouldn’t come looking for it. Not that I felt entirely safe having it on me walking with James either.
James led me out of the Harper family’s living quarters and down a long maze of halls and corridors. He neither spoke to me nor looked at me during the entire journey. His shoulders were stiff, and he kept his hands clutched into fists by his side. He stopped in front of a door, looking right and left down the hallway to make sure no one could see us.
It reminded me of the past. Another time we snuck around. Those times where he would take his hand in mine, and we both thought the world couldn’t get any better.
James ushered me inside of the room without any pretense of hospitality. Once in, he set the candle he was carrying down on a table and bolted the door locked behind him. And then he stood staring at me. Taking in every single ounce of me.
Seeing something he disliked, or even worse for him, liked, he pushed me roughly against the door. He placed both of his hands on either side of my head. Trapping me in his glare. His forehead almost touched mine. “How do I know you?” he whispered.
My chest tightened. I shook from head to toe. He could kill me. I knew how to fight, and if it came to it, I would, but James wanted to kill me.
“Did I know you from my time at Templeton?” he begged. I nodded as the tears streamed down my face. “What the hell did you do to me?”