Page 22 of The Bonds of Nyx

The frown remained on his lips as he stalked over to where I’d been standing in the gym doorway. The space was simply a corner of the basement with an archway indicating the changeof room, and it looked out over the rows of cars, and the cage of weapons not far from it.

I took a step back as he approached, the sharp tug in my chest intensifying. “What is it?” he asked, worry filling his voice.

“Oh, uh. Eloise wants to get the girls out of the house for an hour or so. A picnic to get away from everything. Thea is upstairs prepping it, so I was hoping it would be okay if we just went outside for a bit.”

Rowan’s jaw ticked as his eyes darkened. He was just as handsome as he was the day I’d ran into him on the streets of Forthampton. Somehow, that damned psychic had been right about something.

As he thought, I took a moment to drink him in. He wore no shirt, giving me a full view of his tight muscles and tattoos, which lined either hip. A pink scar above his belly button looked new, and I had the urge to ask him about it, but I bit my tongue. His low-slung shorts left absolutely nothing to the imagination.

I couldn’t help the pang of guilt that erupted in my chest, which I tried to squash immediately. I had a mate, who I was avoiding because I couldn’t face him yet, and here I was, ogling his best friend.

God, I’m horrible. A hussy.

Finally, Rowan sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “There should always be someone on the team with you if you’re going to leave the house.”

It wasn’t a no, so I held off on getting disappointed. “But it’s not an awful, totally horrible idea, right?”

“No,” he replied, offering me a tentative half-smile. “It’s not. Eloise makes a good point, and honestly, I’d feel bad for saying no to her.”

“She can be scary when she wants to be.”

He snorted, shaking his head. “I don’t think I want to be on the wrong side of that.”

A touch of hope warmed my chest. After the whole date fiasco and supernatural revelation, Rowan had been standoffish and quiet, nothing like the man I’d met that day on the street. I wasn’t sure what changed, but maybe we were finally at a place where I could figure out why he’d switched up so quickly.

I’d enjoyed his flirting, even if I hadn’t been used to it. And he’d seemed so genuine. I saw that twinkle again in his eyes, but he still held himself back.

Was it because of Adrian? My stomach twisted. Of course, Rowan might have suspected something, and now he was keeping his distance.

“Ivy?”

My head snapped up and I blinked, swallowing thickly. “Sorry, I just got lost in my thoughts for a second there.”

His smile was gone, and his eyes were shadowed as he cleared his throat. “I’ll see that someone is watching over you guys so you and the girls can have some privacy. Sound good?”

I nodded automatically and ignored the tightness forming in my chest, as well as the small nugget of disappointment that it wasn’t him coming to join us. “Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks.”

Rowan’s jaw ticked as he bowed his head, and then he was walking back towards the woman from Jay’s team, who had been ignoring us for the most part.

My breath shuddered through me as I slipped out of the gym. These messy, complicated emotions would get me nowhere, and I needed to stop dwelling on them. Thea was right about that.

Even if my heart didn’t agree, I knew what needed to be done.

9

ROWAN

I WATCHEDher leave like a coward. The urge togo to her, to take her in my arms and chase away the fears and nightmares plaguing her almost consumed me. But, like the weakling I was, I stood there and watched her disappear.

As soon as she was out of sight, my eyes shuttered close and I tried to remember the last time she’d touched me. Was it that stupid day after her coffee date with Adrian, when we’d collided in the hallway? Surely not. Yet I couldn’t dredge up any other situation where I’d been able to feel her skin against mine, to hold her voluptuous body and breathe in her intoxicating scent.

Nothing. I sighed heavily, and my eyes opened. Navya, Jay’s panther shifter and tracker, cocked a brow. “You still with us, Archer?” she asked, resting her hands on her lithe hips. There was a teasing glint in her black eyes that I might have once played with, but now, it did nothing but fill me with disgust.

I shrugged and checked the bindings around my knuckles. “I need to check in with Tig about watching over her.” Tig, the other shifter still here at the safe house, was a fox shifter on Jay’s team. He hadn’t been at the fight, but he was stealthy enough that Jay left him with Navya here to rotate boundary shifts.

“Seems a little reckless to let them go out there.”

I stiffened; I knew Navya’s game. She was a good agent, a great fighter, but like her beast, she was catty and had a nasty streak. “She’s safe here, and at least two others are on shift right now.”

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