“Thetalkingblade,” Vivien corrected.
Aaron and Timothy’s faces held twin confusion. I slowly turned to stare at Vivien, feeling betrayed for a second time.
“What?” she challenged, indignantly throwing her arms out again before crossing them across her chest and pouting. “You know what I am.”
I did, dammit.
“I must have a chat with Bianca,” Timothy said, pushing his chair away to stand. Except when he got to his feet, it brought him to eye height with Aaron, their faces inches away.
The smolder in Aaron’s eyes was only matched by the intensity of Timothy’s. It was like some kind of sexy face off, that Vivien I sat back and watched like a couple of voyeurs with popcorn. Who said women didn’t have a thing for watching two impossibly sexy men together?
Aaron’s gaze dropped to Timothy’s lips, caressing them with a look before meeting Timothy’s eye again. The god’s jaw tensed and twitched as his hands balled into fists.
Vivien and I had been waiting to see if one or both of them would break for months. And if they did, we weren’t sure if they would fuck or fight. Maybe both?
I sure as hell understood the fucked up dynamic now. Xander riled me past my sensibilities. It was intoxicating to be pushed out of control like that.
Get it together, Miranda. You have to stop this. You are going to kill him like he asked, end of story.
As if hearing my internal pep talk, Timothy turned stiffly on his heel and walked away. Aaron closed his eyes, inhaling deeply before his shoulders sagged.
I released a breath I didn’t know I had been holding. Even Vivien gave a low whistle.
“He’s so f-fucking stubborn,” Aaron finally let out between clenched teeth.
“Yeah, but isn’t that kind of what you love about him?” Vivien pointed out.
A grim smile curved at the edge of his lips. “Maybe.”
Then he left us to go work the line that was forming up again at Perkatory.
Once we were alone, I said, “I love you Vivien, but stay out of my business.”
“I can’t do that, Miranda,” she said, giving me an unusually grave look. “You’re my friend. Honestly, the first real friend I’ve ever had. And I love you too damned much to let you get in your own damned way.”
Deciding to skip the line at Perkatory and settle for the subpar coffeepot in the surveillance office, I stood up. “It’s already done Vivien. There’s nothing to do about it.”
She grabbed one of my arms. “He’s bringing something out in you. I’ve seen you smile in a way I’ve never seen before. I’m also watching you fight it. And I need you to think whether fighting what’s happening between you and him has to be this way, or because you are scared of what happens if he lives?”
I gently pushed her grip off me and walked away without responding. I tried to keep from thinking about her words, but they haunted me the rest of the day. A swirling echo in my head.
What would happen if he lived?
ChapterTwenty-Five
THE BEAST
Bing. I looked up from the spring where I relaxed. My heart jumped into my throat. It was too soon for Miranda to show up, but despite my best efforts, my hope soared that she’d arrived early.
She’d walked away without killing me for the first time in over two weeks. I’d expected to have a bad night. Not long ago, my powers would arc, shutter, and burn in and out of me until I shifted and went crazy and blind with the pain. But whether she’d carved away enough of my power, or because of the salvation I found in her kiss, in her body, I felt more steady than I had in a long time.
Yesterday had been a mess of competition and passion. I needed Miranda to come back to me so I could soothe it away. And frankly, so we could do it all again. I’d researched another game to play, and I even learned to shuffle the deck of playing cards I procured.
I hadn’t decided on our challenge or our game for today. Poker? War? Go Fish? If nothing else, I needed the activity to serve as a distraction to keep me from tackling her the second those bars slid open. All night and morning I’d rolled around in the memory of her scent, her taste, the sinful fucking sounds that escaped her as she slid up and down my rock-hard shaft, finding her pleasure.
The screen up at the top corner of my quarters showed a different person travelling down the elevator to my lair. My good humor and growing erection were instantly shot down.
Still, I surged out of the water and wrapped a towel around my bare waist, not bothering to dry off. I padded my way across the stone path up to the cage. The door opened with a heavy metal groan as I pushed my way through.
