He climbed out of the water, hauled her out next to him. Chilled air rushed over his already wet and cold skin, sent a shiver down his spine. Maelea wrapped her hands around her waist and trembled harder.
Shit, he was totally unprepared for this. No matches, no blankets, not even any supplies. They weren’t going back out the way they’d come in, and looking around the cavern lit by the eerie green glow, their only hope was to follow the river and see where it came out. But they couldn’t do that until they got warm.
“Take off your clothes.”
“Wh-what?” Her shocked and enraged eyes shot to his. Eyes, he noticed up close, that weren’t just dark, as he’d guessed from the hours he’d watched her from his room at the colony. They were black. Jet-black. The same color as her hair. The same color as the vileness of the Underworld that lived inside him.
He reached for the hem of her long-sleeved top. “It’s either that or freeze to death.”
She swatted at his hand and moved back an enormous step, those dark eyes growing wide as saucers. “D-d-d-don’t touch me!”
“It’s not my first choice, female, but it’s either that or die. And I’m not about to die down here.”
He reached for her shirt again. She smacked at his hand, stumbled back a step. “I said don’t t-t-t-touch me. I’ll scream!”
His own anger ramped up. “Go ahead. There’s no one to hear you. Do you think they’re coming after us? They think we’re dead. And even if Nick and the others figure out a way to climb down safely, it’ll be hours before they reach us. That river brought us at least a couple of miles underground. In hours, I plan to be long gone.”
He grasped the hem of her shirt before she could think of words to match her shocked expression, and yanked it up to her head. She let out a muffled scream, threw her arms up to push him away, but her limbs weren’t working yet because of the cold and it did little good. When she stumbled, he didn’t try to catch her, knowing the rock wall of the cavern would do that soon enough.
A crack echoed as her head hit stone. In her dazed yelp, he ripped the rest of her shirt off, dropped it on the ground. Then he went to work on the buttons of her slim black pants. “Hold still, dammit.”
She struggled against him, tried to kick him with her foot. He moved down, barely missed getting cracked in the nose by her knee. While she pushed against his shoulders, he braced one arm across her hips to hold her tight to the rocks and used the other to unzip her boots then drag her pants down her legs.
“You s-s-s-son of a bitch! If you so much as t-t-t-touch me, I’ll—”
She was still shivering, likely in shock. He tugged off one boot, then the other, dragged her pants the rest of the way from her legs. “You’ll what?”
She slammed her fist against his spine. “I’ll k-k-k-kill you! I swear I w-will!”
“With what? Your fingernails? I don’t think so, female.” He pushed back up to his feet, pressed his hips into hers to hold her still, and let go long enough to strip his own dripping shirt over his head.
Anger erupted in those obsidian eyes. But her pupils were dilated, and he wasn’t averse to taking advantage of her disorientation in any way he could.
She raked her fingernails down his chest. Fire burned across his skin where she gouged his flesh.
“Son of a bitch.” He captured her hands easily in one of his. Pinned them over her head and glared down at her. “Stop fucking around. I’m not going to rape you, dammit. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”
She struggled against his hold, finally realized she was trapped, and slowed her flailing. But when he reached down with his free hand to unbutton his jeans, her gaze shot to his waistband and her eyes flew wide all over again. “D…don’t.”
The tremble that ran through her body had nothing to do with the temperature and everything to do with fear. His gaze strayed to the cream-colored bra against her much paler flesh, then lower to the bit of nude lace at her hip peeking out where he wasn’t pressing into her. And against his groin, her stomach tightened. Followed by a rush of heat. A whole lot of heat he wasn’t sure came from only her.
He looked back into her eyes as something sharp stabbed his chest. Not her fingers this time, since they were still bound above her head, but…an emotion? No, definitely couldn’t be that. He hadn’t felt a damn thing other than empty since returning from the Underworld. It had to be something else. Leftover adrenaline from nearly being discovered or even a muscle spasm from almost drowning.
Cool air washed down his spine, spread beneath the waistband of his jeans, sent a shiver over his skin. Enough dicking around. If they didn’t warm up soon, they were both going to die from hypothermia, and then this argument would be nothing but a past-tense waste of time.
Eyes still locked on hers, he toed off his boots, kicked them across the rocks. A buzz echoed in his head, but it wasn’t like the screaming voice he was used to. This, at least, was manageable. He popped the button on his jeans.