I noticed the girl watching us, and when she saw me looking, she pursed her lips and turned away, her eyebrows up.
“It will get worse when you become full Fae. Your instincts would have caused you to attack her. Good news is I will be dead by then, so you will not have to worry,” His breath ruffled my hair and sent a shiver down my body. Dead? He would not die—then it clicked. Sabine’s death would bring his because of that connection she forced between them.
My chest constricted, and he squeezed me, cutting off my freak-out. The bus shook to a stop, and my head shot up—our stop. I pushed off him and scurried off the bus, feeling like I was running from something.
I shouldn’t have reacted that way. I didn’t want to react that way. The desperation at his declaration choked me. Climbing down the steps, I took off at a brisk pace in the direction of the apartment. I didn’t know what to make of the scene on the bus. It was too weird. I had smelled her arousal. Screw that, when Roark had run his hands down my body, I scented my own.
A niggling thought wouldn’t leave me.
“When we first met—” I halted but didn’t turn to look at him, unable to find the words. I wanted to ask him if he smelled me. If he had known I was attracted to him.
Without needing me to embarrass myself even more, he nodded slowly. I wanted to slap myself. No wonder he’d always looked taken off guard when he touched me. It was because I’d thrown all sorts of horny signs. From the beginning, he’d known how attracted I was to him. Known how quickly he got me going.
Flustered, I threw my hands up and cut through the grass, practically running the final steps to the door. I banged on it, focused to hear what was on the other side as the door swung open.
“Why didn’t you answer my text? Jeff told me you were swooped away by some psycho. I barely managed to convince him not to call the police because I figured it was Rian,” Annie yelled.
I shushed her and strode in. She was about to close the door right behind me, but Roark shrugged through. The light filtering through the window illuminated him. Annie’s mouth popped open, and she cleared her throat. I wanted to smack the look off her face, but then she snapped her mouth closed.
“He’s not Rian.” She took a step back from Roark and narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. “Damn, sis, do you have a whole harem of hotties?”
I rolled my eyes. “Ha, ha, so funny,” I muttered and stepped into the apartment. I headed toward the spare room Jeff used to use as a gym. “I need to borrow some clothes, and you need to pack. We have to get going.”
All I heard from her was a groan and an exasperated “Not again.”
20
I was almost to the spare room which now served as Annie’s bedroom when hands corded around my arms, stopping me in my tracks. Jeff turned me and squeezed me tight to a familiar bare chest. “You had me so worried. I didn’t know where the hell you’d gone.”
“I’m fine,” I squeaked, but before I finished my sentence, I was ripped away.
Disoriented, I blinked and made out Roark’s back squished against my face as he pinned me against the wall. Feeling like a pancake, I got on my tiptoes to look over Roark’s shoulder. Jeff was sprawled on his back, staring up in shock.
“Roark, what’s your problem?” I chastised and elbowed my way around him. My face twisted apologetically. “You guys didn’t meet properly yesterday. Jeff, Roark. Roark, Jeff,” I nervously introduced them, then turned to my sister, who watched on with wide eyes. “Can you get me clothes?” I prompted again. She opened her mouth, but the words didn’t come from her mouth. My patience wore thin as she gaped at me like a fish.
“I boxed your stuff. They’re in the hall closet.” Jeff got to his feet. “What the hell are you?” he muttered to Roark, eyeing him. When Roark glared in answer, Jeff turned to me, expression tense. “What is he?”
I knew he was referencing the fact that Roark had torn a door off the car and then disappeared with me in his arms. But telling him about this new world was out of the question.
“Uh, Roark’s a… bodybuilder,” I threw out, knowing it sounded ridiculous. I turned away from the skeptical expression and headed to the hall closet. Boxes were stacked in an orderly manner, each one with my name scrawled on the side in Jeff’s familiar writing. That had been one aspect of Jeff that I’d loved. He was so neat when he tried.
Memories rushed to the forefront and sent a pang of nostalgia through me. Jeff had been a friend, and I’d trusted him with my whole being. That’s what had stung so severely about his betrayal, mainly since we used to tell each other everything.
Pulling one of the boxes down that said clothing, I started rummaging and paused when I grasped the soft texture of one of my favorite shirts. I brought out the dark material and stopped myself before I hugged the familiar shirt. It made me feel… human. The cotton was soft and yet coarse with wear.
Anxious to feel it against my skin, I shrugged my leather jacket off and pulled up the bottom of my borrowed shirt. A menacing growl erupted from Roark. I froze and remembered that people surrounded me.
This scent I’d caught in passing infused
