Page 66 of Love's Ace

“Maybe not to you…” He didn’t finish the sentence, but I knew what he meant. This proximity felt dangerous to him—the fact that he felt safewasdangerous to him. I’d felt all of it when we’d been together in the graveyard, every scar from his past blown wide and bleeding into me. I didn’t understand what had caused them, but I knew the danger he felt in letting someone close.

But he stayed still as I skated my fingertips across his brows until the drawn, worried expression smoothed out.

“We’re safe right now.”

You’re safe. I didn’t say it—I knew better than to completely call him out on what he was feeling. But I hoped he understood what I meant anyway.

“Whatever,” he grumbled… but when I moved to draw my hand away, his fingers caught my wrist and dragged it back to his hair.

We stayed like that for a while, though after a bit I stretched out on the bed and couldn’t resist when my wings sprang freeand Theo started to carefully brush his fingers through my feathers the same way I carded mine through his hair.

He didn’t understand how it felt—even though I knew he couldfeelwhat I was feeling. He just knew that it feltgood, that it sent little shoots of pleasure through my body every time he dragged his hand up and down.

Even though he’d seen Gethin and the pain he was in, I still hadn’t talked about Enmity and their penchant for trying to rip off a cupid’s wings.

He had no way of knowing that I was completely going against my nature, letting him touch me like this—and no way of knowing that going against that nature felt better than anything I’d experienced in my life.

After a while, the rumble of his stomach finally pushed me to my feet.

“It’s fine,” he muttered, half asleep, but I waved him off.

“I picked this house because it’s easy to have food delivered. Don’t worry, you can stay in bed.”

As soon as I said it, I paused, waiting for his usual accusations of me not trusting him around people to surface. Instead, he made a show of pulling the blanket up over his shoulders.

“Good. I’m still tired after yesterday.”

Yesterday.

One word shouldn’t have made my entire body burn, and the sensation of that burn creeping up my chest and to my cheeksshouldn’thave made Theo smile.

But of course he felt it.

And ofcourseI noticed the upturn of his lips… His smile was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.

A week.

It had been close to a week since I’d met him, and all of these little realizations felt so infinite, so impossible to refute or ignore.

Like they’d been permanent fixtures in my century of life that I was somehow just now noticing.

Fuck.Soulmates.

I was starting to realize a cupid didn’t understandat allwhat we were giving to humans. We could grasp the concept, the ins and outs, the mechanics… but the emotion?

The meaning?

The weight of it?

No, this was so far past anything I’d understood. Until Theo.

He stayed in bed until someone knocked on the door to deliver our food, and he was in the hallway watching as I double checked it was just the delivery person and not anyone who might pose a threat.

His smile was gone as I stocked the refrigerator, and he was frowning when I tossed a sandwich wrap on the table in front of him.

I already knew what was bothering him, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

“What?”

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