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“Do you know what it would do to me if you were assaulted by some rapist fuck, and I wasn’t there to protect you? None of us were there! At least if you’re with one of the others, I know you’ll be safe. Do you want me to kill for you, Thea? Because that’s what would happen.”
I struggled to keep my breathing even, to appear unaffected by his tirade. It would be so easy to just let go of my anger. To fall into his arms and tell him everything that happened and let him put me back together before that last piece of me still holding it together crumbled to ash.
Gods, I wished he’d been with me. Any of them. They could have stopped me, stepped in to help physically so I wouldn’t have had to resort to using a power I barely understood.
My heart thumped harder, and though the truth was on the tip of my tongue, my mom’s words sounded in my head. What came out instead was, “Well, I’m good. I was tired after River headed back, so I came home.” Stick to the story. Nothing happened.
“You don’t look ‘good.’ You look freaked the hell out.”
“Well, I had quite a night, didn’t I? Any night with Heath and Illyria around tends to upset me.” Truth. From what I could tell, he couldn’t sense lies the way Varon could sense the truth. Still, if there was nothing for him to sense, all the better.
That seemed to calm some of the rage still simmering inside him.
“I’m sorry about her.”
“Not your fault.”
“No, but I still wish you didn’t have to deal with her at all. If I’d told you beforehand, maybe you would have been better equipped…”
If he’d told me upfront she had a vision he and Varon were going to fall for me. Along with Darrio and Remy. Yeah, that would have been good to know.
But, then again, would it have? If I’d known coming in that there were going to be three—I still refused to count Varon, there had to be a mistake there—men who my heart would be torn between, I’d have run for cover and avoided all of them.
And I’d have missed out on so much. Each of them brought something different into my life, something that had bolstered me at one time or another.
Sam made me laugh so hard I forgot everything around me. Darrio could soothe any hurt with his embrace and comforting words. Remy’s dark edge intrigued me to no end while he taught me to control the terrifying power rippling beneath the surface of my skin.
Somehow, though, I felt more alone than I had in a long time. Pushing them away had been the right choice, though. If I couldn’t trust them, I couldn’t trust myself to be with them.
“Where’s your necklace, Thea?”
“My what?” My thoughts were too scattered to grasp what he was referring to.
“The necklace I gave you. Why aren’t you wearing it?”
I resented the accusation in the statement, and it sent my guard right back up. “Probably because you gave it to me.”
“I told you it would help you channel your abilities until you get better control over them.” Dammit, he had told me that. Which would have come in handy earlier, possibly saving four lives—no matter that they hadn’t really deserved saving—but I’d been too pissed at him to even think about it when I’d stuffed it into my drawer. His gaze narrowed on me, and I realized I needed to get him the hell out of here before he picked up on what was really wrong with me.
“Listen, I appreciate your concern, Sam. I really do. But I’m okay, so you can go.”
Rather than head for the door, he took a step toward me, closing some of the distance I’d put between us. I would have taken a step back to match his, but I could already feel my bed at the back of my knees.
Danger zone, Kenny Loggins, get rid of him!
My body buzzed at his nearness, and my evil nips were about to betray me if I didn’t get him out of my space soon. Since I was braless, they might as well be flashing neon signs of my arousal.
He may not have been able to read the truth, but Sam had eyeballs that functioned. My chest was rising and falling as my breathing shallowed, and I was sure my pupils were dilating as I let my gaze wander from his eyes, over his lips, and further down until they hit his clearly defined pecs. Damn, was he beautiful. It wouldn’t take more than a word for him to have that shirt over his head and those jeans puddled around his ankles. My leggings were hardly any form of resistance to a body like that. If he grabbed them with both hands and tore—
“Don’t you have to call the guys and tell them I’m safe?” I blurted the first thing that came to mind, and thank all the gods in any and every pantheon, the dark desire in his eyes flickered. He shook his head as though to clear away the fog of lust that had fallen over us in a matter of seconds.
“Yeah.” His voice was gruffer than it had been a moment ago, and he cleared his throat before trying again. “Yeah, I’ve got to let them know I have you.”
Not quite, but it had been a close call.
“Okay, well, uh, go ahead and do that. I’m going to bed.” With false indifference, I stepped to the side and around the bed, yanking back the covers before crawling beneath them. “Turn the light off on your way out.”
Sam watched me with an amused half grin, but he made no move to come toward me. Another round of thanks to the gods.
