Page 148 of Deadwood
“Bowen—”
I snapped my focus back to her, finding her lips sealed shut, like she’d thought better of whatever she was about to say.
“What?”
She shook her head the slightest. “Nothing.”
As her cheek moved with the obvious sign that she was chewing on it from the inside, I could tell she was keeping something from me. But if she didn’t want to tell me, I’d let that be her secret to decide to share.
I had other concerns.
“Why was there glass littering your kitchen floor?”
Her forehead creased. “You were at the house?”
“Siara was. To grab some things for you. But she saw the mess and came straight back.”
She blinked, her hands intertwining together in her lap. “Right.”
I waited silently for her to go on. Maybe a glass had slipped through her wet fingers?—
“Paxon was there, waiting for me.”
Instantly, smoke flickered in my veins, prowling through my body with the urge to hunt. “When.”
She slackened slightly, leaning closer as she felt me go on alert. One glance at my arms and we’d see the graying veins as my magic feasted on the need to keep her safe.
“After you left me the other day.”
“Why didn’t you go back out and get me?” My voice was full of lethal calm, grating as I fought the impulse to go out there and find him myself.
She unclasped her hands, setting them on top of mine on either side of her. Slowly, I turned mine over so our palms touched.
“He wouldn’t have let me if I tried,” she said, defeat clear in her tone. I fucking hated it.
“I would have killed him if he so much as laid a hand on you.”
With the way she averted my gaze, I knew he’d done something.
“Where did he touch you?”
“Bowen—”
“Where, Auria?”
Her eyes turned pleading, and fuck, that look alone would’ve sent me to my knees if I wasn’t already there.
“It’s in the past, Bowen. I’ll clean the glass before I leave?—”
“I’m not worried about the fucking glass, Auria. I’m worried aboutyou.”
The words left my tongue on their own accord, begging to be voiced.
A slight crease was etched between her brows as she processed my words, my mind doing the same. Admitting I was attracted to her—fine, that was nothing. But this admission felt like…more.
“I’m okay,” she whispered.
I stood, my hands opening and closing without her warm, delicate skin against mine. “You could have died.”
