Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1047(@200wpm)___ 838(@250wpm)___ 698(@300wpm)
I wiggled my fingers in there, and I gagged. I had no clue what I was doing. Not even a little bit but…
His body jerked. His back arched. And The Defender retched. Literally gagged so hard his whole body nearly convulsed.
The muscles in his throat spasmed.
I didn’t move my fingers out fast enough.
The vomit….
I gagged just as something warm and liquid-like shot out of his mouth and over my retreating fingers, landing all over the floor.
It was clear and not much of it, but….
I gagged again as I slapped his back while he coughed and coughed.
Oh God, he’d thrown up.
I watched him as he coughed, as he rolled onto his back, partway on my knees, with a ragged groan.
Those purple eyes opened, but it wasn’t the color that caught me off guard that time. It was his mean-ass scowl.
“Are you going to be okay?” I hissed at him, ignoring how fast my fucking heart was beating.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he snapped, coughing. Going up to an elbow, he grabbed his throat, eyes wide. “You trying to make sure I have tonsils?”
Some part of my brain recognized the fact that he looked shocked. Like I’d really surprised the hell out of him. But the rest of my brain didn’t understand what the fuck he was yelling over.
I’d thought… I’d thought….
“I thought that maybe they’d poisoned you! Or you were choking! Your lips were blue,” I grumbled back, a ball forming in my throat almost instantly. Even my eyes got watery all over again as I took him in, on his side, massaging his throat as a pool of clear vomit lay beside him.
“What the hell would I be choking on? I was resting!” The Defender gave me the ugliest fucking look I’d ever seen.
But I couldn’t even find it in me to care.
Mostly because he was fine. He wasn’t dying. Why’d he have to scare the shit out of me like that?
“Your lips were blue,” I explained, hearing how funny my voice sounded and not sure how to stop it. Slowly, I got up, numb. “I thought you were dying,” I managed to whisper, each word softer than the last as I made my way to the sink and rinsed my hand off. “Your heart was beating even slower than before, and you were cold, and your lips were blue….”
Tears pooled over my eyes and down my cheeks, and I didn’t even bother wiping them off as I let more water stream over my fingers and palm. When it was as good as it was going to get, I shook the water from my hand and finally turned to glare at him. Getting angry all over again. “Why the fuck would you do that? Why didn’t you open your eyes when I came in? I tried talking to you,” I cried. “I thought you were dying, and I thought it was my fault, and….” Slapping a hand over the center of my chest, I shook my head.
I’d felt like I was about to have a heart attack there.
“You scared the shit out of me,” I croaked as even more tears came over my eyes. “You never did that before.” I sniffled and wiped at my eyes. “Fuck you, dammit.”
His eyes almost bulged out. “Fuck me?”
I nodded, ignoring my poor bruised brain. “Yeah.” Fuck him. “Fuck you,” I repeated so there was no misunderstanding what I said.
He narrowed his eyes as he watched me, and I was pretty sure I saw some muscle in his face relax a little bit. “Were you… crying for me?” he asked almost warily.
Why did he sound so surprised? “Yeah, and?” I winced, palming my chest. I’d forgotten about my shirt. About being in a sports bra in the first place. But I couldn’t muster up half a shit. Mostly because even more tears poured out of my eyes from relief. “Why were you like that?”
He narrowed his eyes even more as he switched languages. “I was in deep rest.”
“You didn’t look like a corpse when you were in deep rest before,” I answered him right back in Korean. Legs weak, I eased to the ground.
“That wasn’t a deep rest; that was a normal rest. I knew they weren’t going to come back until they brought you, and I knew they weren’t going to kill you or do anything to me yet. I took advantage of the time.” A little growl formed in his throat. “I didn’t think you were going to stick your whole hand down my damn throat.”
The hand I didn’t have against my chest, the one he’d thrown up on, I set on the ground so I wouldn’t be tempted to use it. “How the hell was I supposed to know?” I wiped at my face again. “You scared the shit out of me. That’s what you get for ignoring me.” And that was what I got for jumping to conclusions.