Keeping my voice calm, I reply, “This is me protecting you.”

“Oh my God. I can’t win with you,” she cries, her chin beginning to quiver from all the emotions that must be overwhelming her.

When I take a step closer to her, she glares at me. “Don’t you dare touch me right now. I don’t want your pity. I want to talk to my brother.”

I shake my head again, hating that I can’t make her understand without telling her the truth. I reach a hand out to her, but Ariana takes a step backward, and then she lets out a startled shriek as a piece of the boulder gives way beneath her.

Just reacting, I dive after Ariana, and I grab hold of her arm right before we slam into the icy water of the lake.

ARIANA

The breath is slammed from my body as the water engulfs me. Demitri’s grip on my arm tightens, and then I’m yanked toward him.

Not opening my eyes, I instinctively grab for him, and when I feel his shoulders, I quickly wrap my arms around his neck. A current pushes and jerks at our bodies, but a second later, our heads break through the water, and I gasp for air.

As the cold sweeps through my body, I begin to shiver uncontrollably, and my teeth start to clatter.

“Hold on tight,” Demitri orders, and keeping one strong arm around my waist, he begins to swim toward the shore. The waves shove against us, but it doesn’t deter Demitri from getting us back to land. I have no idea how he does it because I’m so frozen, I’m finding it hard just to breathe.

When it’s shallow enough for Demitri to stand, his arm becomes a steel band around me, keeping me pinned to his body. It’s just as well because I don’t think I can move a muscle. The moment Demitri steps out of the water, his other arm slips beneath my knees, and then he carries me up the stretch of sand toward a stairway carved out of the rocks.

God, what is this man made of? Is he even human?

I can’t control the shivers wracking my body, and my breaths come out loud and choppy.

Demitri heads straight for the house and carries me all the way to his bathroom. He sets me down in the shower, and all I can do I lean against him as he opens the faucets.

The cold water feels warm on my skin, but it only makes me shiver more.

There’s nothing I can do as Demitri begins to pull the sweater off me. He keeps going until I’m butt naked, and then he strips out of his own clothes.

My eyes widen as inch after inch of his body is revealed to me, and for a moment, my mind short-circuits, and I even forget about the cold.

Holy crap. Every solid inch of him is perfect.