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I pause.
The rage that overtakes me is like a windstorm. She’s in shock. It’s obvious because she’s not trembling or scared. She’s just staring blankly at me, her eyes dull. And the rage reminds me that someone did this to her. She didn’t trip and fall down the stairs.
Someone hurt her.
I grip the counter with both hands, leaning forward and practicing my deep breathing. Because this fickle emotion is irrational and all-consuming, and I don’t want to do something stupid.
Now I understand why my brother did what he did when someone threatened Willow.
A pinprick of guilt stabs me.
Now I’m Miles in this situation, having driven Joel away to claim the girl for myself. And obviously I didn’t really give a shit about Willow… I mean, I dated her for a year because I wanted to win a bet.
And I wanted to get back at my brother.
But now Aurora is in front of me, awakening all these feelings I’d been repressing. Not just toward her, but toward everyone.
I don’t like it.
“I didn’t know where else to go,” she says in a weird monotone. “I’m sorry.”
“Who did this to you, Sunny?”
She flinches. Just a little. I grip her chin and force her to look at me, ignoring the pain in her eyes and the hiss of breath she lets out. Then, something changes.
“I don’t know,” she lies.
I know her, and I sure as shit know her lies. She doesn’t want to tell me the truth?
“Fine,” I bite out.
I wet the cloth with hot water and, keeping hold of her chin, clean her face. She cringes or winces every time I brush it across her skin, but eventually she just squeezes her eyes shut and lets me get the blood off her face.
“Take your shirt off,” I order.
She tries, but her face contorts as soon as she tries to lift her arms above her shoulders. After watching her struggle for a long moment, I knock her hands away and grip the collar.
Her eyes widen. “Don’t?—”
Rip.
“Again?” She sighs. “Stop ruining my shirts.”
It’s satisfying, though. Her heavy, full breasts are bare to me, and my breathing stalls out. Her nipples tighten, pebbling in the cool air. She’s not thin, exactly, but soft in all the right places.Which I knew from the revealing dress she wore the other night, and seeing her naked in her bed, but my brain has gone all fuzzy. It takes all my willpower to force my gaze away from them. Away from the vertical scar between her breasts, too, and the healing scabbed line beside it.
Her sides and stomach are already an ugly motley patchwork of green and purple.
“Kicked.” She clears her throat. “I’m actually feeling better.”
I’m going to track down whoever did this and flay them alive.
“Can you just…” She slides off the counter. “Help me back to my condo? I didn’t want to stay there alone, but I shouldn’t have come here.”
“No.” I don’t move, and it puts us chest to chest.
Fuck, her bare chest to mine. I look down at her. She could be internally bleeding. She lost a tooth. She’s—she’s terrified. She might hide it well, but there’s no part of her that wants to go home.
“I know what you look like when you’re scared, Sunny,” I whisper.
