Page 80 of Ravage
“I’m good. Hurt like a bitch, and I hit my head, but my gift’s starting to take over.”
Starting to. It can’t heal him while the car is still in him, though. “Get out of the car so you can heal already,” I snap at him when he doesn’t do it right away and still seems focused on looking me over. “I told you I’m fine.”
He smirks at my tone and grabs my chin, so I look at him. “Worried about me, beautiful?”
“Of course, I am!” I yell at him. “Get out!”
He finally relents and shoves the door open. It screeches on its hinges and fights him, but once it’s open, he pulls himself out, and I get a clear view of the damage to his lower back and his legs. They’re bloody and mangled, and my chest constricts tightly.
He pants on his hands and knees on the ground just outside of the car, and I can see the fine tremble in his muscles as he struggles to keep himself upright until his gift kicks in now that the car’s no longer in the way of his flesh healing. He rips his shirt off and out of the way and picks out any remaining bits of glass in his back and arms.
His body slowly begins to stitch itself back together, his ankles and feet straightening, and golden scales filling in over the freshly healed skin.
I don’t breathe again until every last injury is healed and reflecting moonlight from his hard exterior.
And then I’m breathless for an entirely new reason.
I’ve seen Kell injured numerous times before, but it was always a wound here or there. It’s never affected most of his body at once.
The bits of skin I can see through the tears in his pants and his exposed lower legs and feet are covered in golden scales. They continue up either side of his torso, but the skin from his abdomen up his chest is more of a solid pale gold. The scales along his sides stretch to cover his arms to the back of his hands and then up his neck and along the sides of his face.
His eyes are dark and feral. He looks almost…draconic.
He effortlessly rips the door off the car and leans in over me. “Let me see you.” His voice is deeper than usual, like a rumble echoing from a deep chamber in his chest.
I shiver at the sound of it.
He offers me his hand, and I let him guide me carefully out of the car until I’m leaning against it. He works his way down every inch of my exposed skin while I’m mesmerized by his scales fading away before me. Kellan presses his forehead to mine and exhales. “I don’t see anything. Did I crush you?”
I tilt my face up to his while keeping the contact with our foreheads until we’re staring into each other’s eyes.
He saved my life.
He could have let me die in that wreck. He could have protected himself instead.
But he took every injury for me. He risked his life, took every bit of pain I know he feels, and is still looking me over in case I have so much as a scratch.
He protected me.
Like he always used to.
The feelings I tried to push away since seeing him again break free in a rush of warmth and desire. It will never work out between us after what I’ve done.
But I can’t deny what’s between us anymore.
Not after that.
My hands move up his shirt to curl around the back of his neck. His eyes heat, but he doesn’t move or say anything.
I ignore the betrayal and distrust that’s supposed to be between us when I pull his lips to mine.
I ignore Aiden’s accusation when I sink my tongue between his lips and his fingers tangle into my hair and grip tight.
I ignore the past and anything else that might hinder this moment.
All I know is that I want him. I have wanted him since I knew what it meant to want someone.
And I’m not holding myself back anymore.
