My chest rises and falls hard as his arm drapes over my bare stomach, as my shirt has risen up my abdomen. I’m not safe here. Not when I know what Ambrose is thinking. Not when I know how badly he wants things to go further between us again.
I sit up abruptly. Finding one of Nyx’s sweatshirts, I pull it over me, effectively shutting Ambrose out again. And then I pad downstairs with Ambrose trailing after me wordlessly.
Riven has coffee that he thrusts into my hands, but the dining room feels too suffocating. I head outside, onto the back deck, needing the sunshine on my face.
One by one, the others join me.
Ambrose first.
Riven.
Brax.
Emeric.
Sylara.
Kael.
Talonis.
Everyone is here, except forhim. Worry circles my mind, unsure of where he’d be with the sunlight so high. But then I remember, he’s not just a vampire, he’s a wolf shifter. And if the sun gets to be too much, he can shift. That is, if the wolf shifter curse hasn’t taken that away from him as well.
I haven’t asked the others if they’ve tried shifting. If they’re still able to or if it’s gotten harder. If they’re afraid of being stuck in their wolf forms.
I don’t ask, not because I don’t care, but because it’s just one more problem I can’t solve. There is too much. Too many cursesriding on my shoulders. All I know is I have to save Nyx. Nothing will change that.
Movement catches my eye along the shadows of the treeline.
I hold my breath, unsure of what I’m going to find, but then I see him. Nyx standing utterly still, as if carved from something more precious than flesh. His strong presence is impossible to ignore; it forces everyone to study the artwork that is his body. His beauty is intimidating, the way each muscle wraps around his body in sharp, striking cords.
Beautiful.
My love.
My heart.
He stares right at him. Not afraid to look at me.
I exhale a steady breath, knowing that nothing has changed. What I saw last night was my imagination. There is no way he did what I imagined last night and then can still face me in the morning. Not with the way he’s looking at me.
The corner of my mouth lifts slightly. A light breeze hits my face, blowing from where Nyx is standing, and with it, everything changes.
The aroma of sex floods my nostrils. Heat, lust, desire. It burns hot even now. But it’s not from how he’s looking at me that is making him smell that way. Because mixed with that smell is something that smells like a blood red rose. A mix of sweet and tangy, mixed with his own icy scent. The smell that only happens after spending all night with a person. Naked. Exchanging every bodily fluid imaginable—blood, sweat, arousal, cum. It’s all there.
My body stills.
And I hear the sharp inhales, the gasps, the shocked expressions of everyone around me. I feel their eyes shifting from Nyx to me as if unsure what I’m going to do.
“I don’t understand. Nyx loves Lumi. Did he just have a one-night stand to force her to stop loving him?” Emeric says out loud.
“Amora—she’s not a one-night stand. She’s his first love. The one who got away,” Sylara says solemnly.
“I’m going to kill him,” Kael says.
He moves, and for a moment, no one stops him.
“Don’t,” I say suddenly, my eyes not leaving Nyx.