heart and pierces new wounds into my soul.
I’ll have to leave soon. Arden will come. Whether guided by an underworld alert beacon or his own frightening cunning, he’ll figure things out and find me. When he does, all the fires in hell won’t come close to the pain of losing Maximus. Add in the agony of walking away from him on the arm of another. I suppress another shudder.
I can’t even approach the idea of asking him to wait until I’m free again. What male, in this realm or any other, would willingly sign up for that humiliation?
Not that I’ll have a chance to get that far with the explanation.
I have to figure out how much of the truth to leave him with. For all my hesitations and sidestepping, I feel flayed open after a night in his bed. It’s difficult—damn near impossible—to think straight right now.
We’ve shared so much already… Pieces of my soul I’d never give anyone else. I’ll never forget the magic of what our bodies can do. The vulnerability of those precious moments. The trust in them. Now, suddenly, keeping the rest from him seems more unfair than ever.
I’m so confused. So scared.
Maybe he’ll see me differently once he knows everything. Maybe he’ll feel betrayed by all my secrets. But maybe he’ll keep looking at me the way he does now, like he’d walk through fire for me. Like I’m the piece he’s always been missing, the way he’s been mine.
I glance down at the street directly below. The sidewalks are littered with debris from the storm last night. People pass by every once in a while. Probably straggling home after a wild Saturday night. None of them loiter too long. That means, thankfully, that none of the paparazzi have figured out Maximus’s whereabouts yet. Maybe the story is already old news and people are forgetting about his involvement with the one Valari who’s tried so hard to be forgettable.
I close my eyes and rest my forehead against the glass. If only those photos had never been snapped to begin with. Everything would be different. We’d have more time… Time is the one thing I’d pay nearly any price to have more of right now.
There’s a sharp knock on the door.
I jolt and slam a hand to my chest, where my heart bangs frantically against my ribs. I glance toward the corner of the studio, where Maximus groans into his pillow. He’s still half asleep. A rush of hope joins the terror in my pulse. Maybe, if I submit swiftly and quietly to Arden, Maximus will slumber right through this. Maybe he’ll only think of me as the flaky student who screwed him and dropped out on him instead of the cruel creature who left him with the male she was really promised to.
A second knock. Louder. Harsher.
I jump again but swallow hard and move slowly to the door. On my way, I keep the tears down by telling myself to remember the small details of everything I pass. Books in bookcases, bracketed by natural stone bookends. Between them, framed pictures. One of Maximus and Jesse on the beach. Another of Maximus with Reg from the store and a pretty woman I’ve never met. The striations of blond wood between the darker slats beneath my feet.
All the little things…that will be the details of my only happy thoughts from now on.
With a shaky hand, I turn the handle and open the door a fraction.
It’s… Who is this guy?
The man greets me with a curious smile, tilting his head to the side as if he expects me to recognize him any second. But I don’t. I’m certain I’d remember him. He’s dressed well, if a little strangely for an early Sunday morning, in a dusty beige suit. His eyes are a deep ocean blue, mesmerizing me from under his straw fedora. His overgrown copper hair is tucked behind his ears, a glimmering contrast to the grays that dominate his trimmed goatee.
Hope blooms around my racing heart. Maybe he hasn’t come for me. Still, he doesn’t look like someone who’d be in Maximus’s close circle, which, as far as I can tell, is rather small.
“Well, hello there,” he drawls.
“Uhhh…hi.”
“And who might you be?” His voice is textured and deep, but it has a lightness to it too, like he expects to burst into laughter at any moment. The boyish smirk accentuates the lines around his eyes and mouth.
His entire presence, so full of confidence but contradictions, is beyond