Page 64 of Never Say Die
“Every time I’ve had the chance to break your trust, I haven’t.Yet every single time you’ve had the chance to be honest, I’ve had to dig for the truth. Explain that,” Shay said.
“You almost ate me in a parking garage.”
“But I didn’t.”
“I poured my heart at your fucking feet in Roswell?—”
“After a trashy witch-cult almost murdered us.”
Aiden exhaled sharply. “What do you want?”
“I want you to trust me,” Shay said. He gripped the wooden armrests on either side of Aiden and met his eyes.
“I do trust you,” he hissed, turning away.More than I should,he thought.With my whole fucking life.
“Don’t do that—look at me.” Shay leaned until he caught Aiden’s flighty gaze. “I’m not asking you to turn your skin inside-out, I’m asking you to stop hiding from me. After all we’ve done, I think that’s fair.”
Aiden opened his mouth to speak, but Shay pulled on the red beads looped around his neck, cinching the rosary tight to his throat, and kissed him.
“Anything else you wanna tell me?” Shay asked.
“Kelly said my heart would get me killed,” Aiden said.
“It might.” Shay pulled him into a longer, deeper kiss. Fangs nipped his lip. “Mine did.”
Something bright and hot, like regret but angrier, filled his chest. He widened his legs, allowing room for Shay to place his knee on the chair, caging him against the patterned fabric. They stayed like that. Shay, holding his rosary like a leash, and Aiden, yielding.
“If I come back like you, it’ll be worth it,” Aiden said.
“You don’t want to be like me.”
“Then you don’t know me at all.”
Shay laughed in his throat. “Anything else?”
“Go if you want. I won’t stop you. But if you ever threaten to leave me again, I’ll put another knife in your stomach.” Aidenstretched his small, slender hand around Shay’s throat. “Is that clear?”
Shay’s lips curved. “Crystal.”
Before Aiden could kiss him or bite him or dig his fingernails into his skin, knuckles rapped the door and Dylan hollered, “Open up!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Ican’t believe you booked a ghost tour,” Shay said.
“Haunted pub crawl,” Georgia corrected. She sipped a candy-colored cocktail from a skull-shaped cup and poked him in the chest. “C’mon, we’re in New Orleans. Don’t be a downer.”
Aiden traded his novelty cup from one hand to the other, standing on the sidewalk in front of the LaLaurie Mansion. Swampy heat glued his faded t-shirt to his back and cooked a stale smell into the air. He tipped his face toward the starless sky and inhaled, thankful for the opportunity to disengage. Arguing about ritualism, and secrets, and death,again, made him want to put his fist through a fucking wall. And being close to Shay—angry with Shay, confronted by Shay—sank into his marrow. He needed to recalibrate, get gross-drunk, follow his bandmates into a spooky, boozy tourist trap, and find his bearings.
I’m in love with you, you stupid fucking Chupacabra, he thought, watching Shay tap Georgia on the nose.You gigantic, beautiful, man-eating demon. You cocky, ridiculous son of a?—
“You good, man?” Dylan asked, and palmed Aiden’s head. “Still can’t believe you didthis, by the way. You’re lucky you have a good dome. Most people look like big ‘ol eggs.”
Aiden snorted, laughing under his breath. “Yeah, I’m fine. You doin’ okay?”
“Are you kidding? Hell yeah, I’m okay. There’s money in the bank, I’m on tour with my besties,andI just squeezed a couple drops of CBD into this fruity ass drink,” he said, and lifted his brows, sipping from his own skull-shaped cup. “Livin’ the dream.”
Aiden held his drink out expectantly. “Care to share?”
