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I jumped as his aura split the air, and he stifled it in an instant. But he was absolutely still, eyes fixed on my stomach. I looked down quickly, only to see there were purple bruises from where Zeus had kicked me into the wall. It ached, but… Well, everything ached. My wrist was sore from the way he’d pinned me to the bed, my body was stiff and exhausted from a lack of sleep.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” I whispered.
Still, Drake didn’t move, unable to drag his eyes away until I tugged his shirt down over the bruise.
“It… it was self defence. That’s all.”
Finally, those captivating violet eyes met mine.
“I… hurt one of them and they uh… they had to drag me off.”
His brows pinched, but he nodded stiffly. “Okay.” He swallowed. “Yeh, I mean, ‘course you did. I… I don’t think Rook’s ever recovered from the spoon incident.”
I smiled, though it felt empty in the strange silence that followed. “I… like the socks,” I whispered. “Did you get them?”
“Love did,” he said. “And the…” He waved at the counter behind me, looking a little confused. I glanced back to see over a dozen boxes of Lava and Ashes Perfume. That was my favourite—not to mention stupid expensive, and more than I could go through in a lifetime.
“If you think that’s weird, you should see the linen closet,” Drake said. “I didn’t know there were so many types of fabric you could make a sheet out of.”
Those words were good, right? I felt the faintest glimmer of warmth, somewhere in my chest, but it was fuzzy and barely recognisable. I sank against the lean muscle of Drake’s bare chest as he lifted me up and carried me out to my room.
I saw the familiar cove of couches facing the blank TV, the fireplace along the far wall. My bed, where Drake had spent so many nights with me. It felt… different in still, but I didn’t look long enough to identify why.
I couldn’t stop staring at him as he set me down on the bed. He was stunning, even with tired eyes and messy hair.
He dimmed the lights, and then plugged his phone in. I didn’t say anything, knowing my phone—the new one that Zeus had given me—was still in the bathroom. Its charge would last until I woke, and I could check it then. I didn’t need it with me.
Drake grabbed a tub of moisturiser, knelt before me, and began to massage it into my legs.
I nudged the pot, reading it. The brand was famous for both being expensive and completely scentless. Drake caught me looking. “There was no way in hell I want anything getting in the way of my mate’s perfect scent.” He punctuated each of his last words with gentle kisses on my legs.
Again, I felt that murmur of happiness in my chest, the bubble of a stream echoing through a forest so dark and dense I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. He was so sweet and gentle it was… it was too much. I felt my breath catch as tears returned in full force. He paused, looking up with a frown.
My lip quivered, and I shut my eyes.
I’d thought, for what had felt like eternity, that I would never see him again.
I’d let him go.
The soft touch of his palm brushed my cheek and the bed shifted as he sat beside me.
“I don’t…” I choked. “I don’t know how to be what you need.”
There was a long pause and he tugged me into his arms. “What do you think I need?” he asked me gently.
“I… I don’t know. Anything. I should be happy I’m back, but I just feel…” I couldn’t finish.
Empty.
Worthless.
Like I’d failed him by letting him go.
“You don’t need to be anything, Vex, and you don’t have to see anyone until you’re ready. You don’t have to hear their apologies, nothing. If you don’t want me here either, I can—”
A low desperate sound rose in my chest and he cut off. I reached for him, even with my eyes squeezed shut, gripping his wrist deathly tight.
“I want to stay with you,” I breathed.
