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He sighed, woven with desperation. “Let me do this. Just… let me take you home. I need to be sure you’ll get home safe.”
“I’ll text you,” I stubbornly threw over my shoulder, protectively wrapping my arms around myself.
Another sigh. “And how are you going to do that without a phone?”
Crap.
“Steph’s got your number.”
“I don’t want Steph—” he roared. He then inhaled and exhaled deeply through his nose and tried again more calmly. “I don’t want Steph to take you home. I want to take you home.”
Those last words were wrapped in a whisper, and it pained my soul. Why was it my stepbrother whom my heart belonged to? And the ache didn’t lessen even a bit when he continued.
“It’s hard enough to let you go, Dita. Every passing second without you is an empty one. The nights don’t seem to pass into day. The moon isn’t as bright.” His low voice calmed me, but his words didn’t. “It’s a cold way to live, D. So, please, I’m begging you… Let me take you home.”
My lips trembled. The ones he’d bruised just five minutes ago. Now that mouth of his said crazy things. The night’s air was still warm and cozy, but Ares was right; it was suddenly winter instead of a sultry summer night. I hugged myself a little tighter.
“You’re spouting nonsense,” I accused, not only reeling from the poetic way of telling me the world without me wasn’t spinning as easy, but also how he took me as his property in the bathroom.
He’d fucked me harder than ever. Demanded more from me than when he actively hated me. And that was saying something. It had been almost cruel, mad-at-the-world aggressive and with the intention to beating science and combine our souls into one.
He stepped closer, and even though I felt caged, I didn’t step away. I turned around, once more, to see if there was any resemblance of anguish, of desolation, on his face.
Because that was how I felt.
My inhale of breath shuddered. Looking at him… It was too hard. It broke me. Seeing Ares shed his familiar arrogance, the fake cloak of invincibility he draped over his shoulders every day was gone. In front of me was a man defeated.
I wanted to revel in it.
To push him even further to see if he’d break too.
I didn’t have to. The crack in his voice was another crumbling piece of the ice inside this man.
“You can’t possibly believe that what’s between us isn’t real. IfIfeel it,” he huffed miserably and looked away before his silver eyes dashed back onto mine. An unruly black lock of hair dangled in front of his face. “I’m like the polluted half of the both of us while you’re bright and opening up the starry night sky. You’re messing with my head and I can’t get you fucking out of it. So don’t lie to me and tell me you’re not feeling it.”
“I don’t know if I’m enough to show you there’s more behind the dark curtain of clouds you’ve hidden behind, Ares.”
“That’s the thing, D. I’ve seen more stars since you’re in my life than any universe there is.”
I shook my head. “But you’re still using my body.”
He swallowed, hard, smart enough to read between the lines.
“I’m seeing those stars too,” I continued, vulnerable as if he squeezed my heart in his strong hand. “I just wished you’d keep them aflame.”
His brows dipped into a deep V while he cast his eyes down to his sneakers. He was genuinely confused when he moved his eyes back to mine. “It’s how we communicate.”
“It’s the only way you seem to know how to communicate.” God, I could rip my hair out. Did he even know how to love? “This goes way beyond sex, Ares. A relationship is more than some fun between the sheets.”
He stepped forward, settling his hands on my waist. I gripped his wrists because my weakened legs were unsteady on these heels.
His tongue darted out to wet his lips, nervous and unsure. “Teach me, then.”
I looked at him from underneath my lashes, gauging how far he wanted to go to make things right again. I didn’t believe in us being the wrong ends of the magnet anymore. He and I did have something real. But he manipulated things.
“Promise me… Promise you won’t treat me as a game.”
A shy smile splayed on his face. Ares… shy. It was an extraordinary sight.
