Page 112 of Illusory

Hot tears were pouring down my cheeks too fast for me tostop. I looked up and met his gaze, seeing the fire blazing in his smoky eyes. A fire that burned only for me.

“You’re wrong about one thing,” I said, my broken words so low he wouldn’t have been able to hear them had he not been standing so close. “I did choose you.”

His brows pulled into a frown as his gaze ran frantically across my face in search of some hidden meaning.

“I chose you the only way I could,” I said and then pushed past his barricade, leaving him standing there, stunned and alone.

36. PLAYING DIRTY

I spent the following day hiding inside my room, avoiding everything and everyone, including my training with Gabriel. I told myself it was for their own good, but I knew my avoidance was about me just as much as it was them. Everything had gotten completely out of hand yesterday and I’d barely been able to stay in control of myself around them, but I was as determined as ever not to let the setback deter me.

In fact, it only made me realize that the more I teetered that line with them, the harder I was making this on all of us. How could I expect them to take my decision seriously if I wasn’t even taking it seriously myself? I needed to be cold and completely ruthless to all of our hearts no matter how badly I wanted to fall into their arms.

It was the only way.

Still, I couldn’t stay couped up in my room forever. I was still only humanishand needed things to survive besides the tap water I had been drinking from the bathroom sink. By evening, the hunger pangs in my stomach refused to be ignored for a second longer, especially when Isa was downstairs cooking my favorite fucking foods.

As embarrassing as it was to admit, it was the smell of roasted chicken and garlic potatoes that finally lured me out of my room. With my nerves frayed and my stomach in an all-out revolt, I tiptoed my way downstairs, desperately trying to avoid alerting Trace and Dominic to the fact that I had finally left my lair, though it was really a pointless move seeing that they were vampires and would surely hear me long before Iheard them.

That fact was perfectly illustrated when I rounded the corner and heard their distinct voices floating out of the living room. For some strange reason, the conversation between the two of them sounded relaxed and casual, almost friendly even, and my ears instantly perked up.

I may or may not have intended to eavesdrop on what they were discussing, but that plan was quickly foiled when the muffled conversation came to an abrupt stop. Before I could even attempt to wind myself out of the sneaky stance I was in, Dominic appeared in the doorway with his eyebrows raised and a knowing smirk on his face.

“Hello, angel.”

Trace stepped up beside him a short second later. “Hey, Jemma.” His dimples pressed in as his gaze raked over me appreciatively, like his eyes had been about as starved for me as my stomach had been for a meal.

“H-hey.”

“Is everything okay?” asked Trace, noting my strange posture.

Resisting the urge to drop dead of embarrassment, I straightened my back and gave a quick nod, trying to come up with some casual but plausible reason for why I was creeping around in the hallway.

“I thought I heard something—a noise,” I blurted out and then inwardly kicked myself for not staying in my room and dying of starvation like I had originally planned. “I thought maybe Jackie had come back.”

Trace’s gaze shifted over my shoulder to the front door while Dominic just continued to smirk at me.

He knew I was lying.

Healwaysknew when I was lying, especially when I was doing it badly.

“It was probably just the wind outside. So…” I glanced down at my hands, unable to think of anything else to add to the terrible cover story. “Yeah.” I pivoted and then barreled for the kitchen, avoiding each of their gazes as I skittered by them even though I knew their eyes were on me, tracking my every step.

Of course, I didn’t make it very far.

I gasped as Dominic blurred in front of me, blocking my path and stopping me from progressing any further down the narrow corridor that led to the kitchen.

The lopsided grin was gone from his face. “How much longer are we going to play this game, angel?”

My breath hitched and then sped up, making my chest rise and fall faster than I could temper. “What game?” I asked, trying to keep the thread of fear from my voice even though my heart was pounding madly in my chest.

He took a slow, deliberate step toward me, to which I instantly matched with one in the opposite direction.

His features darkened. “Thatgame.”

I glanced over my shoulder, noting that Trace was standing just a couple of feet behind me, watching us intently.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Dominic. I’m not playing any games,” I said and tried to walk around him, but he shadowed my movements, stopping me from getting anywhere.

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