Unsure what to say, I lifted my hands and then dropped them. “The bond doesn’t work that way.”
“The bond is designed to alert me to when you’re in danger,” he said, looking at me. “You were in danger, and I felt nothing.”
I was supposed to be resting, but that wasn’t what I was doing. I wasn’t even in the house, and if Misha or anyone else discovered that I wasn’t in my bed, there’d be Hell to pay.
But I was on a mission—a mission to locate and retrieve Peanut.
Call it a seventh sense, but I just knew that pervy little ghost was hiding out in Zayne’s room.
I hadn’t seen him since he’d left the night before to spy on Matthew and Thierry, and I was guessing he hadn’t heard anything of note to report.
And yeah, maybe I wanted to talk to Zayne, tell him thank you for getting me to Thierry so quickly last night and for checking on me. I didn’t think I’d thanked him.
And maybe I didn’t want to be alone with my conversation with Misha playing over and over in my head. Between learning that it had been Clay trying to kill me and that Misha hadn’t felt anything signaling that I was in danger through the bond, I needed a distraction.
Wearing my favorite pair of oversize dark sunglasses that still didn’t block out enough of the sun’s bright rays for me, I made my way to the Great Hall and slipped in through the side entrance. Climbing the back stairs, I wondered how I was going to figure out which room Zayne was staying in. I hadn’t thought that far ahead and knocking on every door wasn’t the brightest plan.
Probably should’ve thought about that.
Too late now. I pushed open the stairwell door and stepped in the wide second-floor hallway, right into the path of Nicolai and Dez.
“Whoa.” I drew up short with a little laugh. “Sorry. Wasn’t expecting to see either of you.”
Nicolai immediately stepped forward. “What are you doing out of bed? How are you feeling? Should you be—?”
“I’m fine,” I said, cutting off his rapid-fire questions. “Just a little sore. Thank you so much for helping last night.”
“No need to thank me at all,” he replied, concern pinching his brow as I glanced at Dez. “I’m glad to see that you’re up and moving about.”
“I feel the same.” Dez smiled. “Dez. I don’t think we’ve met.” He paused. “I’m also glad to see you’re up and moving about.”
“Thank you.”
The smile on Dez’s face kicked up an inch. “This is the part where you shake my hand.”
“Oh. Sorry.” Flushing, I looked down and, sure enough, Dez had offered his hand and I hadn’t seen it. I shook it. “I’m actually here to, um, thank Zayne. I didn’t get a chance last night. Do you know if he’s in his room?”
“I believe he is.” Dez looked over his shoulder. “His room is the fifth on the right.”
I smiled, thanking the little dose of serendipity. “Thanks.”
Both men nodded, and just after I stepped around them, Nicolai spoke. “Trinity?”
I turned. “Yes?”
His gaze searched mine as he stepped forward, lowering his voice. “Zayne told us that he offered you the opportunity to leave with us if you find that necessary. I just want you to know that I completely support his offer.”
The shock I’d felt when Zayne made that offer returned as I looked between the two Wardens.
“As do I,” Dez said. “We know you said you were safe here, but if that changes, even after we leave, you have friends in DC that can help you.”
A knot formed in my chest. “Thank you,” I said, meaning it. “I’ll...I’ll remember that.”
Nicolai nodded and then both men left, disappearing down the stairwell I’d just come up. I stood there for a moment. They were... They were good people.
Smiling, I walked down the hall, squinting as I counted the doors. I stopped in front of the fifth on the right and the smile faltered and then failed.
What was I going to say to Zayne? Hey, there may be a creepy peeping ghost in your room? Well, I did need to thank him, but it could’ve waited.
“Damn. Damn. Damn.” Taking a step back, I started to turn—
The door opened before I could move an inch. “Trinity?”
Turning back as I desperately tried to come up with a good reason for being there that had nothing to do with him, I came to a complete, utter stop.
Zayne was naked—naked and wet.
My eyes widened. Okay, he wasn’t completely naked. He did have a dark blue towel wrapped around his lean hips, but that towel hung indecently low. There were indents on either side of his hips, and I had no idea how he got muscles there.
Misha was ripped, but he didn’t have those. I knew. I’d seen him half-naked a million times.
There was also this very interesting fine dusting of hair a little darker than blond that trailed from his navel and farther down...
Heat blossomed in my stomach and flushed my skin. It felt like it was the dead of summer, not early June, and I was wearing a turtleneck and a jacket.
And a blanket.
God, he was... He was stunning, and I needed to stop gawking at him, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. I also knew, deep in my bones, it was more than a visceral reaction. But he wasn’t the first guy I’d ever been attracted to, so I didn’t understand why he affected me so much.
Those hips shifted and he seemed to spread his thighs. “I’m starting to feel a little violated over here.”
“Huh?” I blinked, dragging my gaze to his face. “What?”
Fresh from a shower, his wet hair was slicked back from his face. “You’re staring at me.”
Warmth flared even hotter in my cheeks. I was just as bad as Peanut. “No, I’m not.”
“You’re staring at me like you’ve never seen a guy before.”
“I am not! And I’ve seen guys—lots of them.”
One eyebrow rose perfectly. “So, you see a lot of naked guys?”
My eyes narrowed. “No, that’s not what I meant.”
“That’s what you implied.”
Truth was I’d never seen a guy completely naked...or this undressed. “Why are you almost naked?”
He cocked his head. “I just took a shower.”
That much was evident. “So, you always open the door like this?”
“I heard footsteps and thought I’d better check it out.”
“But you have a towel on,” I pointed out. “And how in the world did you hear me? I wasn’t out here stomping around.”
“I have really good hearing,” he replied. “You should know that, as you live with a bunch of Wardens.”
He was right. Wardens had astonishingly good hearing and sight. Hated them.
“Do you always answer the door in a towel when you hear someone?”
“Not typically.” He reached down, curling his fingers around where the towel folded together. “But you were standing outside my door cussing, so I figured I should see what you needed.”
What I needed? Mouth suddenly dry, I swallowed. I wasn’t sure what I needed.
“And I thought to myself, when I heard you repeatedly muttering damn under your breath, surely that could not be Trinity.”
I refocused. “Why not?”
“Because I was thinking that after nearly bleeding to death—”
“On you?”
“Yes, thanks for the reminder. I thought after what happened last night, you’d be in your room resting and not roaming around by yourself.”
Annoyance flared. “Well, it is me out of my bed and roaming around, which I’m allowed to do.” Not exactly true. “And what happened last night isn’t going to make me hide away in my bedroom.”
“Apparently it also doesn’t make you use common sense.” Zayne sighed. “What do you want, Trinity? I’d like to dry off and put some clothes on.”
Just because he had to point out that he was in nothing but a towel again, I had to look. This time my gaze ended up on his chest, and we were close enough that even with my vision I saw the bead of water coursing between his pecs, down the tightly packed muscles of his stomach.
“You’re staring again.”
“I wasn’t...” Okay, at this point lying was stupid. “Whatever.”
He stared at me for a moment and then bit down on his lip. “Hold on a sec.”
Zayne didn’t give me a choice. He stepped back, opening the door the rest of the way. I didn’t see Peanut, but it wasn’t like I could see the whole room. Zayne turned, giving me a glimpse of his back before he disappeared from view. In under ten seconds he returned, having donned a pair of nylon workout pants. That was measurably better than just a towel, but if he had found a shirt, that would’ve been a hundred percent better.
“What’s going on?” he asked, still standing inside the room.
“Nothing’s going on. I just wanted to thank you for last night, but I’m reconsidering that.”
“Why would you thank me for last night?”
“Because you helped me. Made sure I was okay and got back to Thierry and Matthew.” And you waited to see if I was okay. But I didn’t say that.
“You don’t need to thank me,” he replied. “I was just doing what was right.”