Page 102 of Pull Me Under

‘Stay,’ I say against his mouth. ‘Just tonight. Deal with the rest tomorrow.’

‘Your bed is terrible.’

‘I know. Dot sent it up to me, I didn’t want to tell her it was knackered.’

‘There’s a spring poking into my back.’

‘I know. Don’t tell Dot.’

‘I’m probably going to regret this.’

‘Probably.’

He smiles. I feel it against my lips.

‘Okay,’ he says. ‘Just tonight.’

We both know it’s a lie.

He wraps himself around me – arms, legs, the whole warm weight of him – and I let myself be held. Let myself breathe. Let myself, just for tonight, stop running.

Outside, the wind howls and the sea churns and Sea Salt Bay sleeps.

Inside, Jude Harding’s heart beats steady against my back.

And for the first time in as long as I can remember, I’m not afraid of what morning might bring.

Chapter Twenty-One

JUDE

Iwake to a sound like a dying whale.

Low, mournful, building to a groan that seems to come from everywhere at once. The walls. The ceiling. The very bones of this godforsaken cottage.

‘What the hell is that?’

Brynn doesn’t open her eyes. ‘The roof.’

‘The roof is groaning?’

‘It does that when the wind changes direction.’ She burrows deeper into the pillow, her voice muffled. ‘You get used to it.’

‘Do you? Do you really?’

‘No. But I tell myself I will.’

Another groan. A beam in the wall creaks ominously. A draught slips through the window that doesn’t close properly and traces cold fingers down my spine.

‘I’m going to die in this cottage,’ I say.

‘Probably.’

‘You’re remarkably calm about that.’

‘If the roof was going to collapse, it would’ve done it years ago.’ She cracks one eye open, peers at me. ‘Probably, and I’ve splurged on having it fixed. It’s just a couple of loose tiles now.’

‘That’s not reassuring, Trelawney.’