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My stomach hollowed out.
“How do you know?” I demanded. I didn’t want these men to ever see the girl I became around the Demon. I was ashamed of my weakness.
Stellan didn't deign to answer that question. I retraced my memories, trying to figure out how he could have tracked me down. I didn't think that anything in the camera feed had given me away. Was Paxton that much of a blabber mouth? Or were they all tracking me?
Or maybe they just always had someone tailing me. Maybetheywere always tailing me. But if that were true, I wouldn't have been able to break into Remington’s room and hide under his bed…unless the bastards had known I was there and been playing their own game. As I absently stroked my hand between my thighs, toying with my clit, I replayed everything, debating what could have been just another lie between these men and me.
“Aurora,” Stellan groaned. His face looked as if he were warring with himself, then he suddenly sat on the bed beside me, his gaze sharp and hungry. He twitched my skirt completely out of the way, watching my fingers work against my clit.
Then he leaned over and pressed a tender kiss to my thigh, his hands wrapping around my thighs. He looked up at me with the worshipful look I’d always longed to see, and my heart stuttered in my chest.
When he reached to touch me, my hips were already rising to meet his touch.
And I lashed out and kicked him.
Stellan grabbed his shoulder, a hurt look crossing his face. “What the fuck is your problem?”
“I don’t want you to touch me until you stop being a moron!”
Stellan straightened, wariness coming over his face. “You hate me more than you hate the rest of them. Why? If you don't know what happened to my sister, if you don't feel guilty, then why is it that you hate me so much?”
“I don't hate you more than them,” I said, only to feel a thrill of hard, bitter rage at the sight of his face–and to realize he was right. If I hated him like I hated them, I would have punished him the way I had gone after Cain, Pax, and Remington.
I went on, my voice cool. “I feel sorry for you. I feel sorry about your sister.”
“Oh bullshit,” he said, his voice a controlled explosion. “I mean, I don't doubt that's true on some level. I know you miss Sophia too. Although maybe you miss her even though you helped hurt her. I don't know, Aurora. Maybe you felt like you were trapped. Maybe you felt like it was her or you.”
“Would you listen to yourself?” I demanded. “You're right Stellan, I do hate you. Because those men out there are trying to protect you and help you, because of your weird brotherhood of bullshit.”
I scrambled up to my knees on the bed. Hopefully Stellan would continue to think about me at night. Hopefully he'd be tormented by the memory of finding me on his bed but knowing I wouldn't be his. I leveled a finger at his chest.
“They’re assholes because of you. For you. And you dare try to fucking kiss me, when you won’t just believe that I loved Sophia too, that I would never have hurt her?”
He stared back at me, his eyes blazing. “You didn’t love her like I loved her. Or like she loved you.”
“If you don’t trust me, then you’re not just being a dickhead to me when you kiss me anyway. You’re betraying her memory,” I said tightly.
“Do you think I don’t fucking know that?” he demanded, his voice ragged. He ran his hands through his hair. “Christ, Aurora. Half the time, I know you didn’t, I know you couldn’t have. Then you seem like the only piece of her I have left. But sometimes, I wonder, and I can’t stand to look at you…”
He sounded so anguished that it tore open something in my chest, but anger lashed into its place a second after.
I stared at him, crossing my arms over my chest. “There is no way for me to prove to you that I didn't hurt Sophia. Unless we find Sophia and what really happened to her.”
“Then let's do that,” he said abruptly. “If you really care, Aurora, then let's go home. Let's find out what happened to Sophia.”
He stared at me, something hard and flinty coming into his eyes. “But I swear to God, Aurora, if I trust you, that you're on my side. If I trust you, because she trusted you…and you did hurt her. I'm going to kill you.”
“That's fine.” I said crisply. “Because I know that I didn't have anything to do with her death and that you are a moron.”
“I want to be proven a moron in this case, believe me.” He studied me curiously. “You have all that hate sex with the others. Did you come into my room trying to get my attention?”
The connection between us that seemed to transcend time and reality burned brighter and hotter than ever. I could’ve been dark-haired, wide-eyed Delilah or cool, blond Aurora. Then I snapped back into reality.
“I already know I have your attention, Stellan. I'm just waiting for you to be worthy of mine.”
For a second, my crisp words seemed to land like a lash. Then he said confidently, “it seems like you're paying attention to me now, Delilah.”
When he used my old name it always sounded full of emotion. His hands fell on my hips, and his lips brushed my cheek. He tilted my chin up to his, and he stared down at me with feeling in his gaze.
