Page 26 of Love's Ace

I’d spent so much of my life with misery buzzing in my periphery, agony threatening to rip me apart. It had manifested into something real, something tangible and frightening that wanted to completely take me over, but it was familiar. It almost felt wrong that his skin on mine made it melt away.

“Tolerable? Theo, we—”

“We’re here.” The cab driver sounded a little too eager for us to get out of the car. I wondered if the tension pouring between us was so palpable he could feel it beating against the back of his head, or if there was something ominous radiating off me that made him worry for himself.

Whatever it was, Wren cut what he was going to say short and handed the man in the front seat a handful of cash before we got out of the car.

It was immediately obvious that I was in trouble. Wren hadn’t specified where to drop us off, and we were in front of a very busy hotel, on a very busy street. In broad daylight.

I froze, my jaw clenching so hard it felt like my teeth were going to crack. I needed to close my eyes—I needed to look away, because Iknewwhat I was going to see. I could feel it all around me. People holding hands. People in love. People who were—

Wren’s cool fingers slid across my face, digits forcing my lids shut. It wasn’t the way the world went black that calmed me. It was the feel of his skin pressing against mine, submerging me in gentle waves, a sweet, black ocean where I could sink to the bottom.

I didn’t realize my body had swayed slightly, my back pressing to his chest, until I’d already done it. And I didn’t question him when he slipped one hand around my waist and started guiding me forward.

“Keep your eyes closed.” He whispered it in my ear, and I nodded as he slid his hand between us and threaded our fingers together.

I hated it—I didn’t hold hands. I didn’twantto feel like this.

I just…

I could barely breathe. I could barely think. That calm was rolling through my body in intoxicating waves and making me forget why I didn’t trust someone to put their hand in mine.

“Hurry.” I said it through gritted teeth, and he didn’t answer. He just pulled me inside and spoke in a calm voice to someone at the reception desk, then kept pulling me forward until I heard the sound of elevator doors slide shut. When I started to open my eyes, his hand spasmed, bringing my face to his shoulder and pressing me against him.

“Not yet. Stay with me.”

There were people in the elevator with us.

Their soft, flirty conversation made my body tense… and Wren’s fingers tugged gently at my hair and forced me closer against him. He’d realized, even though I hadn’t said a word, what his proximity did.

I wanted to tear out his throat.

I shifted and pressed my lips to his neck instead so I could keep track of his steady heartbeat—count the tempo of his pulse. When I moved, it sped up, and I wondered if it was because he knew that if I pulled away, I’d kill the people in the elevator with us.

That had to be it.

I drew in a deep breath and shivered. Wren smelled like… Fuck, he smelled like the only good memory I’d ever had. Being small and safe, the warmth of summer, berries and chocolate. The flavor of sweet and tart on my tongue before everything faded to the taste of coppery blood and the feeling of hunger and pain.

What thefuck?

I jerked back from him before I fell forward, before I fell into thelieof him and did something stupid like beg him not to let me go. The elevator door dinged open and I darted into the hallway without seeing anyone, without seeinganythingpast the desperate way I needed to getawayfrom Wren.

I thought about turning and going straight to the stairwell, running as fast and as far as I could. He had no business making me feelanything, and no business somehow smelling like the only good memories I had.

He had no businessexisting.

“Theo.” He called my name behind me, and I whirled on him as soon as I heard the elevator door slide shut. We were still in the danger zone, because there were rooms all around us—there were people all around us—and I was beginning to think that it didn’tmatter. I’d kill them all if it meant I could get away fromwhat it felt like he was threatening me with, what it felt like he was trying tobreakme with.

“Get thefuckaway from me, I—”

He didn’t step closer; he just held his hand out. For a second, I thought he was trying to get me to take it, and for a second I felt myself swaying,wantingto… then I realized he had a room key held between his slender fingers.

“Right behind you. I got joining rooms again, so you can have some privacy.”

I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it, but his eyes were just a little too wide, a little too wild for him to be completely unaffected by what had just happened.

It made me wonder…

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