Reborn In a Murderer’s Embrace

I stared at Colin blankly. "Why?"

"You once said that liking someone is all about the sympathetic nervous system getting fired up, hormone levels rising, dopamine transmitting, and heart rate speeding up... If your heart races during a kiss, more than when you’re calm, it means you like me," Colin explained earnestly.

I paused, a little shocked. Was I really that melodramatic? Liking someone needed a formula?

"Cough... You talk too much," I mumbled, looking down and tugging at the drawstring of his sweatpants. Suddenly, I came back to my senses and squinted suspiciously. "Get your own pants off and into the tub! You're drunk, not disabled!"

Colin started to play the fainting card again with a pitiful look. "Phoebe, I feel awful. That booze made me so hot, it's like... I'm in heat."

I clenched my teeth. "I've got a pair of scissors. How about I help you with a little sterilization?"

Colin immediately straightened up, obediently stripped off his clothes, and without a shred of shame, stepped naked into the bathtub.

I massaged my temples. This man really had no sense of embarrassment!

Though we were legally married.

"Phoebe... my hands really hurt." Colin held out his palms, and only then did I notice the wounds on his hands!

"Why didn’t you say something sooner!" I rushed to grab the first aid kit, cursing and fretting over him.

Looking all forlorn, Colin leaned over the edge of the bathtub, watching me tend to his injuries with a slightly dazed and loopy gaze—he was probably really tipsy.

The steam from the bathtub filled the air, and Colin, leaning over the edge, looked as if he had stepped right out of a Greek myth.

"Phoebe..." Colin called my name in a whisper, his eyelashes fluttering. RêAd lat𝙚St chapters at Novel(D)ra/ma.Org Only

Too enticing.

"Phoebe..." He truly seemed in distress, half-submerged in the tub.

Damn it. This bathroom was too big, the tub too spacious; I couldn't shake the feeling he was like a siren, luring me in.

"What are you doing?" I eyed him warily.

"Phoebe... I'm in agony." His hands still rested on the edge of the tub. "I can't get my hands wet, so help me..."

Seeing his presumptuousness, I stood to leave.

"Phoebe," he called out pitifully.

But this time, I didn’t indulge him.

"Phoebe, you like me. Don’t believe Dexter. He's shameless," Colin muttered, still finding the strength to insult Dexter.

I snorted, looking at Colin. "You're pretty shameless yourself."

"Phoebe, we're legit. Everything I own is yours, my face, my body, all yours. I don’t need them. They’re all for you."

Colin said this with utmost seriousness.

I was suddenly seized by an urge to see the world burn. I slammed the door shut, my racing heart only calming down after I gulped in some fresh air.

It must have been the heat of the bathroom. Definitely.

Colin was left to bathe alone. Concerned he might actually drown in his drunken state, I left the bathroom door ajar and lay on the bed, positioned so I could keep an eye on him, just to prevent any accidents.

Colin squirmed pitifully in the tub, trying to dip his bandaged hands in the water.

"If you get those hands wet, I'll break them," I said sternly.

Excitedly, Colin pulled his head out of the water and placed his hands, which hadn't yet touched the water, back on the edge of the tub obediently.

Seemingly reassured that I was watching, he began his own little show-off routine, fluttering like a peacock, grabbing this and that, never settling down.

I gave up, figuring he wasn't that drunk after all, and stopped paying him any mind. Instead, I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my parents' journals.