She liked him. She shouldn’t, but she did.She might be the insect strolling into the trapdoor of the spider’sden, but she didn’t think so. He was a vampire, he fed on her, yethe also acted as if he cared for her. In the short time she’d knownhim, she’d come to care for him too. She cared for him more thanshe would have believed possible so soon after meeting someone.
She shouldn’t be falling this fast, she’dlearned caution early in her life, but trying to stop her emotionsseemed as possible as trying to stop a runaway train. She’d alwaysrolled with the flow in her life; she never would have survived itwith her sanity intact if she hadn’t, so she decided to keeprolling.
No matter what happened, even if she couldnever fully regain her old life, she would always be glad she’d metAiden.
She turned toward him when he sat up. Thesheets fell around his waist when he swung his legs to the floor,and Maggie plummeted from the clouds. Sorrow choked her as shegazed at his back. The lines running across his flesh formed astarburst pattern where they all met in the center. A few dozenscars ran in different directions and wrapped around his ribcage toend beneath his arms. She’d seen the rate with which he healed; shecouldn’t imagine what he must have endured to bare these scarsstill.
“What happened?” She traced one of the faintlines, but when Aiden flinched away, her hand fell onto thesheets.
Aiden turned to look at her as he recalledthe marks on his back. In her arms, he’d forgotten about them andthe compulsion that had propelled him to such repeated degradationat the hands of another.
“This is from a whip, isn’t it?” sheasked.
Grasping her fingers, he brought them to hislips and kissed them. “It’s the past.”
“I’ve seen how fast you heal. There’s noevidence of the injury you had when we first met, but I saw thesescars around that wound. Why do the scars remain?”
“They’ll eventually fade too.”
Especially now that he wouldn’t requiresomeone to beat him to near unconsciousness anymore. Not while hehad Maggie to keep him grounded. Now that they’d slept together,his need to change her would accelerate, but for now he was happyjust to have her near him.
“Butwhyare they still there?” shedemanded. “That other wound was horrific. Were these injuries evenworse?”
“No.”
“Then why do you have scars?”
He knew this was a topic she wouldn’t letgo, and if he had any hope of getting her to trust him enough toturn for him, he would have to reveal some of the things he’dprefer to keep from her. “Because sometimes, after repeated,sustained injury, our wounds and scars take longer to heal and fadeaway.”
“Repeated, sustained injury?”
“Yes.”
“Whodid this to you often enough toleave you scarred?” The color drained from her face as her gazeshot up to his. “Was it your family?”
“No!” he yelled far louder than he’dintended. “No,” he said more calmly and squeezed her fingers. “Mysiblings and I may have tried to kill each other a time or two. Wemay have dared each other to do some stupid things, but none of uswould have done this to another.”
“Your parents?”
“My parents never raised a hand against us.They had far more creative ways of punishment. Some of whichinvolved allowing our siblings to decide our fate. Isabelle got tochoose my punishment once for hanging her favorite doll from a treeafter cutting off its hair, dipping it in paint, and tossing it inthe lake. In retaliation, she tied me and that stupid doll to atree together and kept hitting the button to make it pee. Everytime she hit the button, the doll also declared it was hungry orcalled me mama in this horrible robotic voice made only worse byits swim in the lake.”
He’d told the story in the hopes of coaxinga smile from her, but Maggie remained straight-faced while shestared at his back. “I never touched one of her dolls againafterward,” he finished.
“Maybe your parents didn’t raise a handagainst you, but a whip isn’t a hand,” she said.
“A whip isn’t a hand, but my parents neverhurt me, and neither did the Stooges. Let it go, Maggie. The markswill fade.”
“I’ve seen what you can do, Aiden. If youweren’t a child when this happened, then who was strong enough todo this to you as an adult and why? Was it Ronan?” She didn’t knowthe guy, but she’d kick his ass if he’d done this. “Was this a jobrequirement or something?”
“No.”
“Then what happened?”
Frustration filled her when his lips clampedtogether and he didn’t speak. He knew so much about her, yet sheknew so little about him, and he refused to let her in. She wantedto kick her cloud-walking self in the ass. She knew better than toget her hopes up about anything. She wasn’t pessimistic oroptimistic; she put herself strictly in the pragmatic category, andthat was where she liked to stay. She’d forgotten that thismorning; she would not forget it again.
“You continue to ask about me and demandanswers, you expect me to trust you, yet you won’t open up to me atall,” she stated.
Aiden heard the anger in her voice andsensed the distance opening between them when she leaned away fromhim. He’d prefer not to tell her where the scars had come from, orwhy, but if he didn’t give her something, she would walk away fromhim.
