Page 165 of Caelum

If his housemistress, Jennifer, hadn’t doled out weekly inspections on the rooms in her dorms, then I had no doubt his place would be full of shit he didn’t need but, deep down, his soul did.

“I hate that you’ve all suffered,” she whispered.

“And you haven’t? Fearing for your life? Living with that kind of pressure? You were raised in a cult,meu amor; that’s heavy shit.”

A snicker escaped her. “Heavy shit,” she repeated, making my eyes widen at the fact she’d cursed. Before I could call her on it, she asked, “Was he hurt on the streets, Nestor?” I tensed before I relaxed, and then she patted my arm. “It’s okay. He can tell me.”

I licked my lips, uncertain if that was for the best or not. I was sure Stefan wouldn’t appreciate my telling Eve he’d been raped as a boy, that he’d sold himself just to appease the nagging ache in his belly, but also, would he ever tell her?

It didn’tseemto affect him as much as the other stuff did. But who was I to say? We all had our demons, and Eve would come to know each of them quite intimately before we were through with one another and were knocking at death’s door.

Hopefully, that would be a long way away.

Soft lips pressed against my throat, making me freeze as they brushed over the tenderness of newly scarred flesh. The Ghoul had left her mark on me, but I’d wear it as a badge of honor because I’d survived the attack and lived to walk another day, whereas my brothers had slaughtered my attacker. “Eve?” I questioned, unsure if she knew what she was doing and whether she knew how much power she had over me at that moment.

SIXTEEN

EVE

I wasn’t sure why I did it, but the need to press my lips to his throat, to kiss him and taste him at the point where he’d been hurt, was a burning ache in my belly.

Fluttering my tongue along the sinews, I felt the slightly risen flesh of the scar and sighed as his taste blossomed inside my mouth. It filled me up as though I’d taken a deep sip of juice, but it was more than that. It went deeper.

Inside my body, I felt warm, and it was exactly like what had happened with Stefan the night they’d returned from Aboh.

I was overheated and yet, somehow, the perfect temperature too.

“Eve?” he asked, and I heard the hesitance in his voice.

When he said my name again, I lifted away from him and whispered, “What is it?”

“Do you know what you’re doing?”

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “No. I definitely don’t,” I told him and was relieved when his tension died off and he began laughing too.

When I caught his eyes with mine, we both smiled at each other, and it felt so right, so good that inside, I just felt happy.

Weird considering how unhappy I’d been until moments before.

Lying on the sofa, I had contemplated how my life had gone in a full circle somehow, except it had been derailed and I’d gone off track onto a whole other circle, which had only mademe feel worse.

The connection I had with the guys was only deepening, and the longer I spent with them, the deeper I wanted it to go.

I barely knew some of them, even though they were trying, and the need I had to know them more was a burning ache inside me, and I recognized it was sexual.

I wasn’t a child anymore. These feelings, the way my souls responded and reacted to these men? It had stimulated me in ways that I knew they could ease.

A part of me felt sure that if I touched on this side of myself, it would help things simmer down, and I wouldn’t deny that thought had me seeking comfort in Nestor’s arms.

But that was a giant leapfrog to this moment.

I felt more than comfort. I felt at ease. He’d opened up to me, told me something about his past he was ashamed about. Had told me something about Stefan too.

My men all had labyrinthine depths and, truth was, I considered myself fortunate that I’d be the one getting lost in them for a lifetime.

I still felt guilty, sure. And yes, I’d been thinking of ways to get off Caelum without them to spare them, but there was no point.

They were my Chosen.

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