Page 40 of Love's Ace

It wasn’t anything vicious, or evenintentional. But I could feel his fingers work the hard lines of his muscles, running soap overhis frame as quickly as he could. It was tantamount to some kind of torture, and I found myself getting dressed in the same dirty, half blood-soaked clothes I’d had on the other night.

“You’re right.” I spoke before the billow of steam even spilled from the bathroom door. “I think I need new clothes. This smells like…” Death? Like blood? I wasn’t sure what the Enmity I’d killed last night smelled like, but it wasn’t natural.

“I don’t know if there are more of the Enmity just… waiting. I’m not sure, but there may be something about our connection that’s attracting them.” Wren’s voice was filled with something unsaid, and I could feel apprehension in the unspoken words trailing between us. Maybe he wasn’t keeping his walls up as well as before, because his emotions flooded into me in little waves that left me reeling.

“What aren’t you saying?”

His eyes narrowed, and he opened his mouth like he meant to lie. Just as quickly, he snapped it shut and shook his head. “They can probably feel you, open and raw. Ready to change. They can probably feel that something’s wrong.”

Me.

Of course it was me.

I was the reason he’d nearly gotten killed last night, and if more of those things came after us, I’d be the reason he got hurt.

He stepped forward before I could say anything, and whatever heat was trying to surge up through my chest and make my words vile stilled at the back of my throat when his hand landed lightly on the side of my neck.

Just his fingertips, but the coolness edged along my nerve endings and made it easier for me to breathe than it should have been. Easier for me to think clearly.

I wasn’t sure if he understood—this was different. Even before I’d been attacked, I’d been incapable of controlling myself. It was impossible not to feel hurt, defensive, anxious. Closed off.

There was a reason I’d killed so many people. Self-defense only went so far. Self-preservation was a more apt way to describe it.

But Wren…

Wren made all that anger, all that pain fade somewhere in the background, and when I tilted my gaze down to look at him, he was staring at me thoughtfully.

“It isn’t your fault, Theo,” he said carefully, like he was testing the words on his tongue. When they didn’t burn him, he continued. “We’ll call another car. It’s late. We can go to a store and grab you something, and then come back here before anything notices us.”

He sounded sure enough, even though I wasn’t convinced. What if the monsters just found us while we were driving? What if he was right, and it was me—the hole in my chest and the black edges I could see trying to press against the red string that connected us—that called the things to us?

What then?

I swallowed hard, and it took me a second to realize I was leaning into his hand—my fingers had drifted up, and I’d brought it to my cheek.

He’d justletme do it without saying a word.

It made me jerk back, and I crossed my arms over my chest like the damn things had betrayed me.

“If you think it won’t get us attacked again. I don’t know how many times I can save you, you know?”

I aimed for arrogance, and it seemed to work, because Wren rolled his eyes and stepped across the room, grabbing his bow and slipping it pointedly over his shoulder.

“I wasn’t prepared last time. I am now. Come on.” He started out the door, and I felt something in my chest squeeze tight again.

What if there were people out there?

What if I saw someone, andIwas the one he had to defend himself from?

What if—I darted forward before the thoughts could completely overtake me, and I kept my lips pressed tightly together when I crowded close to his side. I didn’t take his hand, but my shoulder bumped into his, and I felt a burst of relief as the tension melted from my chest.

I hated this.

I hated that I wanted to be so close to him.

I hated that my body knew what he felt like, knew what it meant when I could let go, when I could stophurting…

I hated him for giving me that when I still wasn’t sure I could keep it… But apparently, I didn’t hate him enough to stop, because when he slid his hand down between us and flipped his palm to offer it to me, I let out a low grunt of derision and slipped my fingers into his.

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