Page 113 of Illusory

“Then you haven’t been playing hide-and-seek with us all day again?” he asked sardonically, knowing full well that I was.

“No.” I straightened. “I’ve been doing my homework and just came down to get a snack,” I said and then turned on my heel, deciding that I’d just go back the same way I’d come.

Screw the food. Screwthis.

I wasn’t even almost at the required level of coldruthlessness needed to deal with the two of themon melike this.

Trace advanced before I could get anywhere, crowding the small space so that I couldn’t escape that way either. I was basically cornered and pinned between the two of them.

My eyes went wide. “What are you doing? What isthis?” I snapped, gesturing to the two of them blocking me from both sides as though they were suddenly working together. As though they were on the same fucking team.

“We just want to talk to you,” answered Trace, his voice low and pleading, his eyes haunted. It made me feel as though someone had reached into my chest and squeezed the air from my lungs.

“Talk to me about what?” I shook my head, not seeing the point of it. We were only dragging out the pain at this point and I wanted no part of the carnage. “I think we’ve already said everything that needed to be said.”

“And what about last night?” he asked, edging closer. I didn’t bother retreating that time, knowing that I would only end up on top of Dominic anyway.

“That was a mistake. A minor setback.”

“It wasn’t a mistake,” he said and then picked up my hand, slipping his fingers through mine. Sparks ignited under my skin, soaring out all over my body through our bond. My lips parted as his gaze dropped down to my mouth, his own pupils dilating like it felt just as good to him as it did for me.

“It doesn’t change anything,” I rasped, trying to shake myself out of the haze that was building in me. I needed to keep a level head before my body decided to jump to the forefront and take the wheel again. “There’s still no future. I know it’s hard right now, but it won’t always feel like this. You’ll get over me—”

“I won’t.”

“—and you’ll meet someone better—”

“You’re my soulmate, Jemma.”

“—and she’ll...” My heart sank, halting me. “Okay, she won’t be your soulmate, but she’ll be able to give you everything you deserve, Trace. Everything Ican’tgive you,” I said and pressed my hand to my chest, afraid that he would be able to hear the literal sounds of my heart breaking inside of me.

“I don’t give a shit whatshecan give me, Jemma. I want you.Only you,” he said, his tenor dropping so low I could feel it rumbling in my bones. “Don’t you get that?”

My throat tightened as tears pricked the corners of my eyes. I got it more than he could ever know. More than I would ever admit to him. “I get that it’s hard now, I do, but it won’t always be like this.” It couldn’t be. I had to believe thattimewould eventually heal the wounds I’d caused them, and they’d be better off because of it. “And yeah, I know I fucked up last night and got carried away in the moment, but it’s not going to happen again.”

“What if I want it to happen again?” He paused tentatively. “What if we both do?”

“What?”I hissed; certain I’d misunderstood him. I quickly shook away his words and what I’d thought I’d heard and pressed on. “Someday you’ll both understand why I did this and you’ll—”

“And we’llwhat?” cut in Dominic, halting me in my tracks again as he flattened his hand against my waist, making my brain momentarily short-circuit. “We’ll thank you for it?” His chest brushed up against my back as he leaned in beside my ear and whispered. “Is that what you were going to say, angel?”

My gaze stayed pinned on Trace as I tried not to pay attention to the way Dominic’s fingers were digging into myflesh, marking me like he owned me. Heat spread low in my body, and I nodded.

At least I thought I had.

I could barely think straight, what with my heart trying to punch a hole out of my chest and his intoxicatingly sweet cologne wrapping itself around me like a love that would never set me free.

Dominic huffed, as though offended and then dropped his voice impossibly low. “You act as though you are giving us some sort of gift, and I must say, I don’t think I appreciate it in the least.”

“It is a gift,” I whispered softly.

“Well, in that case,” he murmured, his lips grazing my ear as he spoke, “we respectfully decline your gift.”

“You can’t just—” My protest died in my throat as Trace sidled closer, his eyes pooling with desire, or hunger, orsomething. Something that had my hand moving up to his chest and fisting his shirt.

I wasn’t sure if I’d meant to stop him from coming closer or to pull him into me as though it were my life mission to tend to every one of his needs. As though the three of us were going to reenact my latest inappropriate dream right there in the middle of the hallway.

What in Satan’s Lair was going on here?

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