Page 13 of Inescapable Gravity

She kept it on his and felt the clash of their wills like a tug of war between them.

It would end, she reasoned, when he decided that she wasn't worth the fight.

He shook his head, just a fraction of an inch. Enough for her to see a muscle tick in his jaw.

Had he lost the dimple she loved so much?

Had she taken it away from him along with his smile?

No, she couldn't have that much power over a man like him.

"You need to go." She ground the words out between her clenched teeth and bit into the inside of her cheek to keep the intensity in her expression.

She couldn't weaken now.

She needed him to leave before the dam inside of her broke.

"Leave."

Something flashed in his eyes and she hoped that he was on the verge of leaving.

Please, oh please.

"Marius-"

"Ares." His voice felt like it was purring in her ears. "They call me Ares now."

It was fitting, she decided.

The fierce look in his eyes sent chills through her body. It was as if a switch had flipped and he'd gone from the Roman pantheon as Mars to the Greek as Ares.

She spoke again, feeling as if she needed to release some of the tension building up inside of her. "The god of war."

"You can fight this all you want, Nix, but I need you to know that I win the battles I fight."

She stared back at him and wondered where the teenage boy had gone.

Had she lost him forever?

That's when she saw it.

The softer warmth of emotion in his eyes pushing out the hard, cutting edge of his glare.

"I won't leave, Nix. I won't tell Blackwood that I'm leaving. You know why?"

She opened her mouth to speak, a slight parting of her lips, enough to breathe in life-giving air deep into her lungs.

Still, she couldn't speak or move her head, held in the dark glare in his eyes.

"I'm going to fight for you, Nix. I'm going to fight for us in a way that I think you've never been fought for before. Remember that."

Remember that?

How could she not?

How could she-

He grabbed her by her upper arms and pulled her tight against him from mid-thigh to their middles. Then he did what she'd been dreaming of since that summer night.

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