Page 23 of Surge of Heat

Aydan takes a step forward, breathing hard. “I don’t remember her being yours when I was inside her last night.”

“Aydan!” I say, mortified.

Evander’s head jerks to me, and I can tell he’s trying to figure out if what Aydan said was true. He must read it in my face, because his jaw twitches. “Well, she needed someone with me gone. I’m back now, so she’s done with you.”

“Not a fucking chance. She was with you because she didn’t have a choice, but now she’s with me.”

“You’re no dragon,” Evander tells him, cocky and angry. “You can’t offer her what she needs.”

I shift to move between them, and I grab Aydan’s face. “You need to go. Right now. He’s hurt. He can’t be wasting energy arguing.”

Aydan smirks, but it’s angry. “There’s no way in hell I’m leaving him in your bed. He’s leaving. I’m staying.”

“He needs me,” I say, stretching out the word need.

Hurt flickers across Aydan’s face. “What are you saying?”

“She’s saying she wants you to leave,” Evander says, stretching back on the bed like the overconfident asshole he is.

“Be quiet,” I tell Evander, then turn back to Aydan. “He needs me right now, so can you please leave.”

He takes a step away from me. “You’re choosing him.”

“No!” I shake my head and take a step toward him, not liking the distance between us. “I’m not choosing him. I just need to watch over him tonight.”

“Fuck this,” he says, then turns and starts for the door.

“Aydan!” I call after him. “This doesn’t mean anything. Okay?”

He’s out the door without looking back.

I stand, frozen in place. I replay the expression on his face over and over again. I’d hurt him. I can’t believe I hurt my best friend. This isn’t what I want. None of this is.

“Come back to bed,” Evander tells me, sounding tired and hurt, and not at all like the cocky asshole he’d been a minute ago.

Wrapping my arms around myself, I just stare at the door, unsure about what to do.

EIGHT

Evander

I feellike someone has taken a knife and jabbed it as deep into my flesh as they possibly can. I’ve spent a day trying to reach Sam, pushing past broken bones, tears in my flesh, and pain unlike anything I’ve felt in my life, and somehow, this is worse.

This woman is going to make me lose my mind.

She stands in a thin, silky robe, her curly red hair spilling down her back. Her long legs are visible, reminding me each time I see them of them wrapped around my body as I plunge inside of her. I’ve wanted her. Wanted her from the moment I saw her. Wanted her from the moment I smelled her as a dragon. But for her? I don’t even know what I am.

What’s worse, I know she’s been with him. Not just because of what he said but because of her scent. I didn’t realize what it was at first, just that her scent had shifted. But after smelling him, I knew he’d been inside her.Comeinside her.

“Smoke and pine,” I say, gritting out the words.

She turns to me with wide green eyes that make my anger waver. “What?”

“He smells of smoke and pine. And his smell is weaved with yours, changing it.”

She wraps her arms around herself, looking fragile and lost. “Evander, things are complicated.”

“They don’t need to be complicated.”

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