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“Chloe?”

“What?”

“I said you’re thinking pretty hard.”

“I’m not thinking about anything.”

“Whatever.” Eyes too knowing roved over my face. I turned away to look at the back of the chair, then flinched when I heard a knock. I twisted around to look at the door. Zarek saw the look on my face and crouched down in front of me. He whispered his finger down the side of my face.

“What’s wrong, Cupcake?”

He started calling me that when he was twenty and I was fifteen. He’d seen me steal Zoe’s cupcake and eat it. I’d liked the nickname then. Now it was making me uncomfortable. A second knock on the door made my whole body jerk.

“Chloe, what is it? What’s wrong?”

I wanted to cry. To die. How humiliating that a simple knock on the door was so horrifying. The bad men at the cabin had knocked on the door. They’d said they were lost. Lacy had answered the door.

“Make the knocking stop,” I pleaded, sounding like a child.

When Zarek made a move to stand up, I grabbed his arm. “Be careful,” I hissed.

“Are you scared?”

I shook my head.

“It’s just someone delivering the food. But I’ll make sure it’s them. I won’t open the door until I check, okay?”

I gripped his forearm; the muscle was like steel. He could protect me. Couldn’t he? Slowly, I nodded my head. He brushed a kiss across my hair.

I watched every step he took and shuddered in relief when he looked through the peephole. He looked over his shoulder and gave me a thumbs-up. Even better, he didn’t let the man into the room. Zarek just signed something and took the tray from him, then closed and locked the door. I knew the door was locked, because I watched him do it.

“Honey, I cooked!” he said in a sing-song voice.

I went back over to the couch and sat down, then Zarek walked over and kneed the ottoman over in front of me so he could set down the tray of food.

Zarek watched me staring at it.

“You liked the pineapple smoothie. You’ll like this too.” Zarek’s tone was coaxing..

I felt overwhelmed at the sight of all the food. He was asking too much of me.

“You need to eat.”

“I’m really not that hungry,” I told him as I looked at the food then back at Zarek who was now sitting cross-legged on the floor, on the other side of the ottoman.

“I was afraid you would say that, so I provided incentive. They didn’t have any cupcakes, but they did have chocolate cake. I got ice cream to go with it. You can start with dessert. At this point I don’t care what you eat, just as long as you eat something.” He gave me that Zarek charming smile, but it wasn’t working. Even looking at food that should be appealing, wasn’t.

“Chloe,” his voice was deeper. “You’ve lost weight. You had trouble walking up the stairs to get here. You have the strength of a baby bird. Is that the woman you want to be?”

He picked up a fork. Then he grasped my hand and wrapped it around the utensil. “Are you going to eat, or do you want me to feed you?”

I went to cut off a piece of cake and saw my hand tremble. I tried to stop it, but I couldn’t. He was right, I was weak.

“Let me help you,” he said gently.

“I can do it myself,” I snapped.

Dammit, where had that come from? I didn’t want to let him get under my skin. That meant that I was feeling something. Feeling something was bad. I took a deep breath. “I mean, I’m fine, just give me a moment.”