Page 73 of Ruled By Fate

She awoke rested and refreshed for what felt like the first time in months. His arm was still wrapped around her waist. She could feel his breath on her shoulder. She nestled in a little closer.

I didn’t even know he could sleep.

I could spend the day like this.

I could spend the month like this.

She came to a sudden pause.

I don’t know if I’d ever grow tired of this.

The realization startled her. Her eyes opened, and she shifted slightly to study his face in the morning light. He looked so peaceful with his dark eyelashes fanned over his cheeks and his hair rumpled from the pillows. It was all the more perfect because of those little flaws. He’d finally lost that eternal composure. He’d finally allowed himself to be human for a moment.

Is this what it’s like to fall in love?

She’d never considered it before, let alone experienced it. She was never able to picture herself with anyone, and she didn’t find the concept of being “completed” by a romantic partner at all romantic. Dr. Rogers had called it philophobia, or fear of falling in love. She never bought that. If it was going to happen, she suspected she simply hadn’t found the right person yet. After all, she’d never been able to share her truth with anyone before — not with any hope of being believed.

But Cameron knew her. In a way, he knew her better than anyone else alive. He believed her truth because he’d lived it with her, and he’d trusted her with his truth as well. Maybe she hadn’t been afraid or unable to fall in love all this time. Maybe she’d just recognized that none of the other contenders had been suitable.

Cameron’s very existence disproved a bunch of Dr. Rogers’ other theories anyway.

Not that it matters. The second I strayed too near the subject of attraction, he shut it down.

She remembered his words verbatim and the gravity they carried. Like an invisible weight had been dropped squarely upon her chest. “Such a thing is not permitted.” He’d been very clear.

But that’s not all he said.

Like something out of a dream, she remembered the look on his face when he’d told her, the wistful longing in his eyes when he chanted back those heavenly laws. But there had been other words as well. Softer words. Words that gave her a glimmer of hope.

“Believe me when I tell you there are times that I want to.”

Her eyes drifted once again to the angel by her side, delighting in the image while simultaneously removing him from the equation, trying to decipher her own feelings instead.

Rationally speaking, there was a lot working against them. He was older than she’d like to contemplate. He’d watched her secretly for years. He had real trouble with boundaries, and she still wasn’t comfortable with his infatuation with her toaster. On the other hand, no one had ever sacrificed so much just to be near to her and keep her safe.

No one but Mom. And then Sherry.

She inhaled sharply with the realization it was true.

If that’s the list he’s on… it might actually be love.

She was still reeling in silence, still gazing at the perfect symmetry of his face, when a feral scream ripped through the air.

He woke up with a start, tightening his grip around her.

The screaming paused for a moment, then started up again in the exact same cadence, the exact same series of tortured cries, as though someone or something was being burned alive. It was ghastly. It was utterly horrifying. But at the same time, the rhythm was too perfect. Almost mechanical.

Is that…?

With a look of childlike panic, Cameron bolted out of bed and yanked open the top drawer of her dresser. For a split second, she was convinced he was looking for some ancient weapon. But he emerged a second later with a tiny screeching device. It took a second to recognize her phone.

“I don’t believe it,” she said, holding out her hand. “Give me that.”

He flushed but tossed it over, watching as she frantically tried to unlock the thing with her fingerprint to shut off the bloodcurdling alarm.

“I can’t open it. Why won’t it let me—”

A sonorous baritone cut her off. “Siri, be quiet at once.”

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