Page 307 of Trick or Stalk

He looks toward the floor.

“Hades?”

“No.”

My pulse jumps. “No, he wasn't wrong?”

His eyes meet mine again. “No.”

I wait.

That's apparently all I'm getting.

“You're really going to make me drag this out of you?”

“I've never said it before.”

The irritation leaves me. “Oh.”

“To anyone.”

Oh.

Something soft and painful opens inside my chest.

Hades looks almost angry about it. Not at me. At himself. At the vulnerability of having those words inside him.

For a man who can admit to murder without looking away, apparently this is the confession that scares him.

I take the final step between us.

I feel the heat of his body now. Smell cedar and clean soap.

“Say it.”

His smoky eyes lock onto mine. “Presley.”

“Say it.”

His throat moves.

He’s silent for another beat.

“I love you.”

My eyes burn.

Fuck him.

Seriously.

Fuck him for making those three words sound like something dragged straight out of his chest.

He keeps going. “I don't know how to do this right.”

“That has become painfully obvious.”

His mouth twitches. “But I love you.”