Page 23 of Love's Ace

“Well, I didn’t want her breaking into my room and asking me for a good time, so I went out. Don’t worry, your best isn’t broken or dead in a ditch… just tired of his coworkers.” I was glad I sounded nonchalant, a little arrogant. It was my normal tone. It didn’t give away that Ihadused the Ardor in a way that I shouldn’t have… a way that I’d only ever used it once before, with Sephtis.

A way that shouldn’t haveworkedwith a cupid, but…

“As annoying as it may be, if you get into an altercation and decide to stay out, at least drop me a message so I know your wings aren’t in a ditch somewhere and I don’t need to fetch them.”

The thought made me shudder, but I laughed it off. “Sorry, Dad. Didn’t know you cared.”

“I don’t.” Aiden’s response was flat, and he hung up before I had a chance to taunt him anymore.

I blew out a shaky breath as soon as the line went dead and let my head fall back against the door. That had been close—entirely too close. I still wasn’t completely sure that it wasn’t some kind of ruse on Aiden’s part, that he wasn’t going to show up out of nowhere and point his finger at the mark I could clearly see on my bare chest. The red line that drifted behind me and through the door.

No…

Not through the door.

It drifted to the window facing out of Theo’s room. He was watching me with dark eyes. I had no reason to, but I felt exposed… raw. The sensation burned along our connection, and I only just managed to reel it in before it slammed into him. I stepped back into my room as he came through the joined door.

“Who were you talking to?”

Fuck, he sounded paranoid… and not at all like anything had happened last night. Not like he knew what it felt like to get offwith me. If that was how he wanted to play it, I’d follow his lead. I crossed my arms and pressed my back to the door with a scowl.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It looked like it mattered.” He instantly mirrored my defensiveness, but there was a difference. Mine came naturally—it was like a cloak I pulled over myself to keep everyone and everything at arm’s length. When Theo did it, I saw a flicker of red pass through his eyes, like that beast inside him was lurking just beneath the surface and looking for any chance it could seize to come to the forefront.

I wanted to tell him to fuck off, wanted to lock him back in his room and keep him there… but I couldn’t do that without angering the thing inside him, and I didn’t know what it would do to me if I did. I didn’t want to see black eating across the line connecting us again, and I didn’t know how long the ward Sephtis had put in place would hold.

For the first time in my existence, I needed to figure out how to walk a fine line between keeping my distance and keeping someone close.

I had to playnice.

“It was my boss.” It wasn’t like giving him the answer was going to hurt me. A look of alarm crossed his features as soon as I spoke, though, that made me add on, “Don’t worry. He doesn’t know about what’s happening. He doesn’t know about…” I gestured to his chest and back to mine.

None of the tension left Theo’s body, though. He just drew further in on himself, his arms dropping almost unconsciously to his waist, like he needed to hold himself so he wouldn’t fly apart.

“Didn’t you want to ask him how to kill me without hurting yourself?”

The accusation in his voice was thick, and it wasn’t like there wasn’t honesty in the question. It made me grit my teeth andforce myself to push away from the doorframe. I stepped close enough that he could have reached out if he wanted, could have attacked me. Instead, I watched his eyes drop to my bare chest, to the scars there, old and new… the newest shining a soft white and red with the essence of Ardor still clinging to it.

I blamed those shimmery lines on why I answered him at all. “No, I’m not going to tell anyone about you. They’d kill you.”

They’d kill us both, but somehow that wasn’t what came out of my mouth. Theo turned, trailing back into his room without acknowledging that I’d said anything at all.

I didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing.

I did know that I wanted to move hotels—maybe Aiden didn’t know anything, or maybe he did. It would still be better if we got out of the city, just to be safe.

The only problem was, I didn’t know howsafeit was to take Theo out of the hotel room, especially during the day when there were so many people milling around. At any given moment, I could turn my head and see someone with a connection running between them—pink and red threads, some made whole by an arrow and some waiting for the attentions of a cupid. It was obvious that just the sight of them turned him feral.

It would be a damn shame if I had to kill him after I’d just told him I wasn’t going to let Aiden do it.

I still didn’t have any answers when I followed him across the hotel room and watched with wary eyes as he got dressed without looking up at me. We still hadn’t said anything about what happened while he was in the bathroom, but the attention he put into not looking at me told me he didn’t want to broach the topic. It was probably for the best. It had been a fluke, something that happened because I had pure Ardor running through my veins. I’d spent too long ignoring it, and the consequences of that had overtaken both of us. That’s all it was.

It had to calm down eventually, right? I wasn’t going to be beholden toneedandwantandfeelings.It usually only lasted for a day. This was a little longer… but…

My mind flashed to Sephtis, who wasstillfeeling the effects of it years later.

Fuck.

---