Page 38 of Awakened Gifts
Is he smiling?
“That wasn’t the morning-wake-up I was expecting. Why am I getting the death stare?” he asks, his mismatched eyes giving me insight to the fact he’s torn about whether to seem amused or concerned.
“Have you lost your fucking mind? I could have killed you! I was psychotic!”
Worse than psychotic. I was a raging lunatic on steroids.
He nods slowly, tilting his head to the side once he’s finished. “You didn’t kill anyone that didn’t deserve to die. You were savage, which is completely different from being a raging lunatic.”
His delivery is so dry, and I glare at him for being so composed. “I wanted to kill everyone. I still feel that… craziness eating at me, like a sour aftertaste. I wasn’t a normal savage. I didn’t recognize the difference between friend and foe. For heaven’s sake, I threw Kellan into a car.”
He tries and fails to suppress a grin, and my eyes narrow on him even more. “Yes, I noticed that. But you didn’t kill him. Or anyone else for that matter. He was goading you—tempting fate. He paid the consequences, but you never once tried to kill him. You were just reminding him that you were the dominant force when he tested your patience.”
He wasn’t testing my patience; he was lost in the counter trance. But I tried killing him for succumbing to nature because I didn’t want him anywhere near me.
Smug. The asshole in front of me is being smug right now. Jackass.
“Jackass and asshole? I’m flattered you think so highly of me,” he says, nothing left but amusement as his concern flees.
“You shouldn’t be smiling,” I groan, sinking down in the bed. “I went psycho—worse than savage—and you stupidly stood in front of me. So you need to stop smiling, because I’m incredibly pissed right now.”
He doesn’t stop smiling. Not even a little. In fact, he seems more pleased with himself with every second that ticks by.
“I am pleased. Wrong or right, smart or stupid… I’m pretty fucking pleased. Yes.”
Damn him for making me smile.
“You don’t seem to be having any problems reading my mind today.”
He gives a shrug, acting as though this doesn’t please him as well, but his grin betrays him. He’s enjoying this all far too much.
“I’ve worried for a long time what would happen when or if you went savage. Just like I worried what would happen if Kellan went savage. Now you’re in my arms. You woke up beside me—not him. You came willingly with me, and you knocked him away. Even your psychotic half seems to love me. It’s almost… I feel like I can breathe right now for the first time in so long.”
And now I’m crying and smiling. Jerk.
“If you keep calling me so many sweet names, I might just propose again,” he murmurs against my cheek, with his cocky, insuppressible grin only growing.
A laugh slips out of me unbidden, and I slap his arm before moving my head down so that my lips can meet his. I can actually taste his relief as it pours from his mouth to mine.
“We can’t do this right now,” I mutter against his lips, even as I wrap my legs around his waist to completely contradict that statement.
“We can do anything we want, baby,” he says, kissing me down my chin. “Nowhere to be.”
I groan because his touch feels so good right now, but we have so, so much to do.”
“Prisoner exchange is tonight, the kids are unattended at the other compound, and I’ve got to go apologize to everyone for going Nuclear Aria.”
“Prisoner exchange is being handled differently,” he sighs, leaning away from me. “The Unaligned is suddenly back to doing things right, especially now that someone just tried to frame them for my death.”
He says those words without any emotion, but my heart almost sputters to a stop. After he reads my mind, his expression softens, and he leans over to press his lips gingerly against mine in a chaste kiss.
“Don’t. Don’t think about all the what-ifs. It’ll just drive you crazy. Believe me, I know.” He bends back up, and threads our fingers together before continuing. “We’re doing the prisoner exchange is small spurts, as agreed in the first place. Grayson, Angelica, Kellan, and Simone returned to the children late last night, after they were sure you were down. And Nuclear Aria wasn’t nuclear. Based on the dilation in your eyes, Simone believes you were barely a phase two. She said it’s possible you were still a one. So Nuclear Aria remains to be seen.”
I swallow hard, almost choking. Phase two? Barely a phase two? Possibly a phase one? What happens if I go phase three?
“Hopefully we won’t have to find out,” he says, seriousness taking the place of his light tone. “We do need to go back, but we don’t have to leave right away. Most everyone expected you to take days to come down from that. The compound captain was freaking out about you even being here. But you’re… you. We can stay for a while, and we can just have a few days of… well, us. I got you back from the grave, then I was ripped away, then you chose me over Kellan. Again. I just think we should stay in and rest.”
I cock a skeptical eyebrow at him.