Chapter Six
IDON’T EVEN THINKtwice. I’m already slamming the door, and to heck to whoever hears this—or rather, Itryto slam the door, and fail, because Arkane easily uses just one hand to keep it from hitting his face, and now it’s his strength against mine.
Grr.
I lose, of course, because he’s not even pushing. He’s justholding,and that’s enough. The door stops halfway, and I’m forced to back away as he steadily moves forward until he’s inside my room, and he’s quietly closing the door behind him.
“We don’t want to wake everyone, do we?”
I glare at him. “Don’t we?”
His expression turns thoughtful, and as he studies me, I’m studying him back, and my mind is back at it again.
No no no no no no no no.
Because I’ve just realized the most terrifying thing.
“What do you have against me, Tiara?”
And it’s not just how my skinstillisn’t crawling—
“You don’t even know me, and yet I’ve seemed to earn your distrust.”
But how it’s so much worse.
Because right now, my skin is doing the opposite, with how every inch of me isawareof him.
The cut of his jaw in the dim bedside light. The way his shirt is open at the collar in a way it wasn’t at dinnertime, and the way he’s standing in the middle of my bedroom like he has every right to be there—
My fingers curl at my sides.
I’ve never wanted to touch someone so badly in my life.
Which isterrifying.
“I think you should go.” I point to the door even as I can feel my skin heating in the most painfully mortifying way.
“Not until you tell me the truth.” And to demonstrate, he actually takes a step closer, and I’m forced to take a step back.
“Why do you seem to hate me?”
Because you’re beautiful.
And my dad was beautiful.
And if he could leave Mom and me without a second thought, then why should I think you wouldn’t leave me, too?
The words sit on my tongue. So close to the surface I can taste them. And they’re the truest thing I’ve thought in years, and also the thing I’ve never told a single person, not even Icelle, because saying it out loud would mean admitting I’ve been carrying it around this whole time.
“Tiara?”
Oh, if only I had it in me to tell him the truth.
But since that’s going to openanothercan of worms when the first one isn’t even halfway to being empty—