Trust Me

I froze as he kissed me in a way completely unlike he'd kissed me before. Those kisses had been mind games and strategy. They'd been rough and intense. This kiss was more gentle and pure. His lips seemed to dance with mine in a way completely foreign to me. I hadn't known that a kiss could ever feel this perfect. It was like something inside me was melting, like the kiss was warming every part of my body inch by inch. Every place his skin touched mine seemed to be electrified, sparks flying from his hands where they were wrapped around my wrists and from his legs as they loosened their grip on my sides. I was afraid to move, afraid to close my eyes in case this moment would end.

His hands loosened on my wrists, trailing down my arms to my shoulders. He cupped one hand on my jaw and the other on the back of my head, angling my face up to better meet his, and my arms seemed to weigh a ton. I couldn't have moved even if I wanted to, though I most certainly didn't have any desire to move. My body was completely limp as I tried to melt into the moment, as if I could somehow make this moment last forever.

His lips broke away from mine and he lowered them to hover over my ear. "You're making it hard for me to pretend I could kill you if I needed to," He murmured. "How am I supposed to keep lying to myself if you keep pulling me back to you?" His voice was low and husky, and I could feel the butterflies start rumbling through my stomach again.

I tried to speak but I was having trouble finding my voice. The best I could manage was a cracking whisper. "Is this another one of your games?"

He chuckled softly. "I wish it were." He rolled off me and stood up. "I'm going to start a fire to dry our clothes over. You should clean yourself off unless you want me to push you back in the pool."

I stayed perfectly still as he walked away, probably to collect twigs and moss for the fire. Even after he had left, I stayed there for a few more moments, not daring to move.

After I was positive that he was gone I hopped into the water, grabbing a patch of moss to use as a cloth. I scrubbed furiously at my skin until it was pink, trying to get all the dried bits of blood off my skin and eliminate any traces of dirt or sweat from my skin. The day had been humid, and it was just starting to cool down.

Adri reappeared suddenly with an armful of wood and leaves, and he stared at me blankly for a few seconds. “You’re bright pink. Did you know that?”

I blinked and glanced up at him, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. Should I act like nothing happened between us? It probably was nothing. Just because he’d said it wasn’t a mind game didn’t rule out the possibility that he was lying.

"I had my suspicions," I replied casually, taking a deep breath and dunking myself underwater to try and wash my hair out.

A hand reached in and grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back out of the water. "It's getting cold. You should get out now so you have enough time to dry before night falls. I'm getting the sense that it gets colder every night, and if that's true then you can't afford to be wet when the cold hits." He looked over me again and raised an eyebrow. "Besides, you're clean enough already. I think you might have scrubbed off a couple layers of skin, actually."

I sighed and nodded, pulling myself out of the water. He was right -- it was getting cold. I hadn't realized it while I was in the water, but the air was already starting to grow cold. I pulled my knees into my chest and tried to wring the water from my hair. "I wish you'd told me that before I dunked my head under the water."

"I would have told you if I'd expected it." He pointed out with a smirk.

I crinkled my nose. "Fine, next time I take a bath I'll be sure to announce everything I do."

He chuckled. "That's all I ask, 4." He grabbed his clothes off the branch, and I guessed he was going to put them on. His clothes looked perfectly dry, whilst mine were still in a sopping wet heap on the rocks a few feet away. He took a few steps towards me and draped his jacket over my shoulders and around my knees, which were still pulled into my chest. He loosely did up one of the buttons to keep it from slipping off me, and flashed me a smile.

"Wh..." I began, unsure of what he was doing, and more importantly why he was doing it.

"You're no good to me if you're sick. You'd slow us both down if you caught a cold." He said, shrugging off my confused expression with a half-grin. He sat down a few feet away and started to set up the fire pit, and he had a fire roaring in a matter of minutes.

I watched him carefully, trying to figure out what was going on in his head. Why was he giving up his jacket for me? Surely he needed it just as much as I did -- he looked freezing. Goosebumps covered his skin, though he seemed to take no notice of it. Once the fire was roaring, he grabbed my clothes and wrung every drop of water he could squeeze out of them before hanging them about a foot over the fire. I tried to figure out what he was feeling, but I couldn't find any real emotion in his expression. He looked content, but he always seemed to be either content, frustrated or smug, so that wasn't anything new. I couldn't figure out why he'd said the things he did earlier, and I knew it would haunt me.

"If you're done staring at me, you can grab your knives and find us something to eat." Adri said coolly after a few moments of watching my clothes hang over the fire. "And give me back my jacket. If you try to run off with my clothes, I swear I'll tie you back up."

I scoffed. "Day three of the Games, and you still don't trust me? I'm offended."

"I've trusted you with far too much for my liking, 4." He scoffed, holding out his hand. "Jacket. Now."

I glowered at him but obediently peeled off his jacket, tossing it into his outstretched hand. "What, am I supposed to hunt naked?"

"You're not naked. You've still got your undergarments on, unless they're still soaking wet."

They were soaking wet, but I didn't tell hm for fear he'd make me take them off, too. My bra and underwear had always stayed on whenever I was around Adri, except for the one time I had been taking a bath and he'd come back from hunting after Ingrid had left me a little surprise. Just thinking about how I was completely naked around him made me want to bury my face, but I tried to tell myself that there was nothing I could do about that now, so I might as well just accept it.

"Fine. I'll be back in an hour." I grumbled, grabbing my knives from my drying clothes.

"Make it twenty minutes." He declared. I whirled around to glare at him, but he was smiling up at me with a huge taunting grin. "I'm hungry."