to take care of him, now and always, and he will allow you to stay with him, now and always. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“No, I—”
“Need to put his needs above your own, yes.”
She frowned, finishing, “Want to live on my own.”
“If you do as I suggest,” X continued, as if she hadn’t spoken, “he will do the same for you, I promise you, and you will be happier than you’ve ever been. He will take such good care of you.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Dr. E replied, waving a dismissive hand through the air. “Solo is a terrible man. Just look at him. Hideous! And you’re so beautiful. You deserve better, a handsome prince to come and save the day. Besides, putting someone else’s needs above your own? Stupid!”
“Solo isn’t hideous,” Vika snapped. He had a rough, masculine beauty that wasn’t apparent at first glance, but oh, by the second, third, and fourth, all she’d wanted to do was stare at him.
X grinned at her, a proud gleam in his eyes. “Solo can help you, Vika, and you can help him. But the choice is yours.”
“Choice? There is no choice. If you place yourself in Solo’s care, you will be placing yourself in a worse situation,” Dr. E said. “Think about it. Solo landed himself in a cage, and you earned yourself a beating. You two really only know how to get into trouble. If you get together . . .” He shuddered.
She ignored Dr. E, saying to X, “I will set Solo free.” The cuffs were still a problem, but she couldn’t remain at the circus any longer. She just couldn’t. At long last, her new life would begin.
As Dr. E sputtered, X said, “You will free him, yes, but then you will leave him to hide from the rest of the world, despite the fact that you are meant to be joined to him, and he to you.”
Joined? “As long as he’s in those cuffs, he’s a target for Jecis.”
“Even still, you will be stronger together, two halves of a whole.” He was flickering in and out of view, his voice alternating between fading and growing in volume. “Tell me you’ll stay with him, no matter what.”
“I can’t,” she whispered. She would free him and strike out on her own. She would free the other otherworlders, too, but that was all she could promise. “I’m sorry.”
Dr. E laughed with glee, the hunch in his shoulders suddenly less exaggerated. “Exactly what I wanted to hear.”
Sadness tinged X’s frown—and she noticed his shoulders had begun to stoop. “A wrong turn leads to a wrong end. You’ll find yourself in a place you were never supposed to visit.”
“So dramatic,” Dr. E tsked under his tongue. With a wink, and a chortling, “I’ll be seeing you again, cutie. Real soon,” he disappeared.
X sighed and peered deep into her eyes. “Sleep,” he said, and sighed.
“But I’m not . . . tired.” Her eyes closed, and darkness swamped her mind. She knew nothing more.
• • •
In the ensuing days, Solo came to understand three very important facts.
Vika was naturally seductive.
She was instinctively alluring.
She was a freaking incurable disease.
She slept off and on, sometimes mumbling to herself about wrong turns and right turns and he swore he’d go on a no-mumbles diet as soon as this was over. It was just too adorable, and he’d reached his limit. And okay. Fine. It wasn’t just the mumbles that had reduced him to this state. Every time the monsters had attacked, he’d lain beside her to shield her. The warmth of her breath had caressed his skin. The sweetness of her scent had filled his nose. The beat of her heart had synced with his, making him feel as if they were one being.
Everything had worked together to propel his need for her into a new stratosphere.
Every time she stirred, he would rush to her side to give her food and water. She would eat, and he would eat, and he would start praying the monsters would return so that he had an excuse to cuddle her.
He needed to get himself under control. Because, despite the raggedness of his need, he wasn’t going to let himself have her. He couldn’t. He’d thought about it and had come up with one hundred and two reasons why he had to avoid kissing her, tasting her, stripping her, stroking her, and having her—and the thousand other things he’d imagined doing to her.
At the moment, though, he couldn’t recall a single