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My irritation quickly fades, a smile curving my lips upward. "You haven't been on a date since high school, starlight?"
"No." A blush stains her cheeks. "I didn't see the point." She peeks at me from beneath her lashes. "No one really interested me, and the only ones who asked after high school always seemed more interested in my dad than in me. I think I preferred when they were scared to date me."
"Fucking morons." I bend my head, brushing my lips against hers. "I don't want a goddamn thing from your father, starlight. Except you."
"You already have me," she whispers.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
I kiss her long and deep, marveling all over again that she's here right now, in this bed with me. Anyone else would have cracked under the stress, but not Aurora. She really is the brightest little star in the sky. God knows I don't deserve her. But she's mine anyway. I kiss her until she's mewling beneath me and then pull back to look down at her.
Her pale eyes are bright, her lips swollen from my kisses. Her honey hair flows across my arm and the pillow in soft waves.
"Ravishing," I growl.
She smiles up at me, touching the tip of her finger to my cheek. "You're pretty ravishing yourself, Mr. Attias."
"Fuck." I take her mouth again, plundering it as if I haven't had a taste of her in weeks. When I finally let her up this time, we're both breathing hard and my balls ache.
"What was that for?"
"You make me feel like maybe I'm exactly who I'm supposed to be, and maybe that man isn't so fucking bad, starlight. That's what that was for."
"That man isn't bad, Constantine. He's kind of my hero. You're more than your past, you know. You're honest and kind and gentle and fierce, and beautiful. You protect the people who need protecting, and you love your family so much. I love that," she says. "You're an amazing man."
"Fuck." I press my forehead to hers, guilt pricking at me. But I bite back the truth, battling it back. Until Brady is dead, she doesn't need that anvil hanging over her head. I don't want her living with his impending death hanging like a sword over her head. She doesn't need to carry that weight. It's too goddamn heavy.
Chapter Ten
Aurora
The next three days pass in a blur. It's odd. Time crawled while I was locked in that bedroom, but now, it seems to race. And yet it all still bleeds together.
The only parts that are vivid are the moments I spend with Constantine. When he's by my side, the restless anxiety in my mind quiets, and I feel as if I can breathe again.
But the times when he's gone? I hate those times. There are a lot of them over the next few days. I'm not entirely sure what's going on, nor am I sure I want to know, but I can read a room. Enough to know that something is definitely off.
Every time he leaves, I hold my breath, praying he makes it back to me. Wishing I knew where he was and what he was doing. Feeling like a coward for sticking my head in the sand and trying to pretend it all away instead of simply asking for the truth.
I am a coward. I should have asked. I should ask. And yet I don't.
When he's with me, all I think about, all I see is him. I don't want to know if more awful things are coming my way.
Dante and Dimitri stop by frequently. The three of them disappear into Constantine's office, leaving me with Belle and Snow. My dad drops by every day. He and Constantine disappear into his office, too.
He's stressed more than usual. The last two months have been hard on him…harder than I could let myself consider while I was locked away. He's always been an amazing dad, but when he hugs me now, he always hugs me like it might be the last time.
When he shows up on day four, he's tense and frustrated. He and Constantine immediately head to Constantine's office.
I don't know why I follow them instead of just demanding an explanation, but I linger outside the door like I used to do when I was a little girl eavesdropping on my dad's business conversations. I didn't understand half of what he, Millie, and his advisors and members of the town council talked about behind closed doors, but I listened anyway.
Just like I do now.
"Dillon suspects that you're looking for Brady," my dad tells Constantine. "He was at my office this morning, asking questions. If you're going to handle this, I suggest you do it soon."
Brady?
Uncle Brady?
Confusion clouds my mind even as my stomach churns with anxiety. A crack opens in my chest, yawning wide. Uncle Brady is alive? And Constantine is looking for him?
