“Victoria. I asked you a question.”
Right. She had to stop retreating into her own head. “Uh, you don’t know him.” Truth. Cheese came from cows, and there was no way Aden had met this particular cow.
“Tell me his name anyway.”
“So you can kill him?” she asked hopefully. Soliciting a massacre wasn’t her objective, but a jealous Aden was a caring Aden.
“Never mind.” He waved away her reply. “It doesn’t matter.”
Hopes dashed again.
Something vibrated against her side, and she yelped. Aden glanced down at her, confused and maybe just a little concerned. Hopes reignited.
A yo-yo, that’s what she was.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I think—” Another vibration, another yelp. What the—her phone, she realized with relief. Only her phone. “Yes, I’m fine.”
She stuffed her free hand into the robe’s only pocket and withdrew the small, plastic devise. She’d started to carry one after meeting Aden, so that he could call if he needed her. So far, he hadn’t called, but Riley was certainly taking advantage. His number was different every time, the little thief, but his message was always the same. How many This is bullshit! texts could she get from him?
“A message from Riley,” she said. “Give me a sec. I have to reply.”
This is bullshit! she read. Got MA 2 safety & T is about 2 ruin it.
T. Tucker. Victoria hated Tucker. After releasing Aden’s hand—which she hated to do—she typed, Kill him. Make it hurt. In her haste, she typed “hart” but didn’t realize until too late.
“How is he?” Aden asked. He wound his arm around her waist, guiding her out of the way of trees as her attention wavered between her phone and what was ahead of her. Well, well. While the hand-holding had been as delightful as finding a rainbow, this was like finding the pot of gold at the end of it. She absorbed his heat, felt her cells waking up, responding to him.
“Good.” Another vibration and she read, Hart? Ha! CID. Soon. SOB’s helping 2. Another vibration, a new text. How’s BK doing?
BK. Boy King. Riley had started calling Aden by the stupid nickname in earlier texts and hadn’t stopped. On mend.
Ask him if the name Tyson means anything.
“Does the name Tyson mean anything to you?”
“Tyson?” Aden asked. “Mmm-hmm.”
A moment passed. “No. Should it?”
“Don’t know.” She asked Riley.
We’ll talk about it later. Call if u need me.
K.
I’ll call when Tuck has bled out.
Her lips twitched as she returned the phone to her pocket.
Aden didn’t ask what they’d discussed. He just changed the subject, saying, “Elijah says I’m now like you. My personality, I mean.”
“Of course Elijah is blaming me for the change. He doesn’t like me. None of them do,” she said, then his words sank in, and she gasped. “Wait, what?” Her step faltered, tripping her, dislodging Aden’s hold. When she straightened, she glared at his still moving form. Never mind that she’d had the same thought yesterday. She’d been more inclined to blame her father. “Aden!”
He turned back to face her, frowned at the distance between them and approached. Again she absorbed his heat. Now that her cells were fully awake, they practically quivered in rapture, being this close to him.
How she would have loved it if he’d deigned to return her glare, but no. His expression remained blank. “He says you left pieces of your character inside me. Like when I gave you the souls, and you gave me Chompers.” His head tilted to the side, his gaze moving past her, past the forest, as if he were listening to someone else. He probably was. Then he nodded and said, “And when we drank from each other.”
She ran her tongue over her teeth. Her sharp, useless teeth. “You’re saying this uncaring, very nearly unlikable act is because of me?” You thought the same thing, she reminded herself. How can you be mad at him?
She didn’t know, but she was. Very mad.
“Yes. That’s what I’m saying.” Offered with no hesitation.
That was how people saw her? Cold, distant? Oh, she’d known they considered her too serious, but this… Ugh, ugh, ugh. “Why aren’t I acting like you, then?”
“Maybe you are.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
Her chin lifted. “You mean I’m acting confused, tuning in and out of our conversations, distracted all the time, and throwing jealous fits?” Wait. She was. Her eyes widened as realization struck. She really was.
“Was that how you saw me?” he asked, parroting her thoughts. He took a menacing step toward her, then another.
She backed away slowly, trying not to be obvious in her cowardice—and her desire. Her quivering became outright shaking, her need to be touched by him overshadowing everything else, making her ache.
He didn’t stop coming, and she didn’t stop retreating until her back pressed into a thick tree trunk. She might crave him, but she didn’t know this Aden, didn’t know how he’d react to the things she did and said.
Although, if Elijah was correct, she could guess. If Aden was acting like her, he would try and resist her, but he would fail. Just as she’d always failed to resist him. He would try and dislike her, try to detach himself from her, but again, he would fail.
Finally, a blessing amidst a curse.
When she’d first met him, she had been following orders from her father. Find him, interrogate him, and kill him. She’d found him all right. She’d interrogated him—kind of. While her father had expected screams of pain to spring from the question-and-answer session, she’d ended up swimming with Aden, playing with him. Kissing him.
She’d told herself she didn’t—couldn’t—like him. He was food, nothing more. She’d told herself to remain disconnected from the situation, to do what needed to be done. Aden had summoned her kind to Oklahoma, he hummed with a kind of power none of them understood but were drawn to, a power the beasts inside them yearned for and basically worshipped, and he could do serious damage to their race. Killing him would have been a mercy to her people.
Killing him, though, had never been an option for Victoria. She had been intrigued by him, had identified with him. He was an outsider to his own kind; he was misunderstood, unwanted. She wasn’t an outsider, but as a princess she was set apart. And it hadn’t helped that she’d always been a disappointment to her father. She wasn’t a warrior like her sister Lauren, and she wasn’t a volatile force of nature like Stephanie.
She was just…herself.
Aden flattened his hands at her temples, his lower body brushing against hers and pulling a delighted gasp right out of her. He’d caged her in, surrounded her, becoming all that she saw. All she wanted to see. “You are tuning in and out of our conversations,” he said. There was no heat to his tone, but maybe…maybe there were threads of amusement?
“That doesn’t prove anything,” she said, just to provoke him. What would he do? How far would he take this?
“Let’s test the theory, then.”
“How?”
His nose brushed against hers, his breath fanning over her cheeks, warm and minty. “How would you like to test it?”
Was he going to kiss her? Her heart sped into hyperdrive, her veins expanding to accommodate the increase of blood flow. She ran her tongue over her lips, her gaze melting into his. “I—I don’t know.”
“I do,” he said darkly, huskily. “First, do I have all your attention?”
“Yes.”
“Good. That’s step one. Now for step two.”
Without any more explanation, he settled his mouth over hers, soft, exploring. Her breath hitched as she tasted him. Then, he pressed harder, opened up, and licked at her. She opened up, too, welcoming him inside, and their tongues rolled together. Her hands slid up his chest, around his neck and tangled in his hair.