Page 70 of Bones

It reminded me of when she’d been on my lap, and I could practically taste the memory of her heated kiss. My cock hardened instantly. It took me a few beats to remember what she’d asked. “What do you mean?”

“That was…exhilarating. I’ve never been on a roller coaster, but I bet that’s what it’s like. Worrying I’ll crash or plummet but still wanting to ride it again and again.”

She wasn’t wrong.

And her words, breathless excitement, and thoughts of what else I wanted her to ride again and again did nothing to help my hard-on.

Her focus moved to the door behind me. “I take it you didn’t call to let them know we were coming.”

“No.” At her questioning gaze, I gave an evasive answer. “It’s complicated.”

Belatedly realizing she’d let her guard down for a minute, she tensed and pressed her lips together before trying to shift from my hold.

I hooked a finger in her belt loop and tugged her back hard enough that her body slammed into mine with only Victoria separating us. I tuned out the dog as she alternated between barking at me and sniffing at Aurora like she was checking on her. “Get that this is a lot, baby. I do. But I won’t let you freeze me out forever. Ican’t. It’s not you against all this shit. It’s us. We’re in it together.”

The hint of tenderness that had softened her face was gone in an instant. “That’s exactly the problem.”

Before I could ask what the hell that meant, the despair that’d clung to her at the cabin returned tenfold to hit me like a pallet of bricks. My arm loosened so I could reach out to prop myself up on a porch column before the heaviness of it took me down.

Aurora didn’t have that problem. Her head held high, she took the opening and pulled free to put distance between us. Walking down the steps, she set Victoria on the grass and stood watch.

Unfazed by the dark emotions that filled her.

How the hell is she still standing under the weight of that desolation?

And why does being mated to me make her feel it?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

AND THE AWARD GOES TO…

DEKE

The front door opened, andI turned to see Thanatos fill the opening with his mate held at his side.

Both were thankfully clothed.

His gaze was guarded, and he kept his voice low so Aurora couldn’t hear. “Last time you were here, you said you knew who you were.” His gaze flicked to Aurora and Victoria on the lawn, then back again. “And you poofed back with her. Yet she’s not screaming, crying, throwing up.”

“People don’t mean that literally,” his mate said before looking at me. “He’s been scrolling TikTok.”

“So many videos, so little being said.” He shook his head and then seemed to struggle with how to phrase his question. “So if you know… And she… What’s it you think…”

I stayed alert and just as guarded as I spoke because, for all I knew, it was his awareness that was impaired. “My mate and I both know I’m Famine, part of The Four.”

He rocked back, his voice low. “You really do know who you are. In all I had planned for, this wasn’t the reunion I expected. And not just because of what you interrupted. However…” His black eyes narrowed. I remembered them being the same color as mine, but in the sunlight, I could see thin lines of silvermixed with the darkness. He still wore his hair long, the dark blue, gold, and white-blond hairs—the same white-blond as his mate—hanging past his shoulders. His trimmed beard held the same colors. “Do they not have cell service where you live? Payphones? 1-800-Collect, dial it today?”

My brows lowered at the reminder of the annoying commercials from decades ago. “I don’t think calling collect is a thing anymore. Or payphones, for that matter.”

“Don’t mind him,” the woman with the nearly white hair interjected, touching his abs. The slight contact was enough to visibly relax him. “He gets a little, uh, possessive. Plus, he’s still working through what is around and what’s outdated. Like coming to terms with the fact Nu-Wave Ovens aren’t in every house.”

“Because it’s a brilliant idea.”

“Lula and Chase gave us one of the extra Instant Pots they got as a wedding gift.”

“It’s not the same.”

And now this isn’t the reunionIexpected, either.

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