Page 142

She tried to swallow, but her mouth was as dry as the day he’d carried her through the desert.

“Okay,” she managed to say. It was a good thing it was so dark out, so he couldn’t see her face turning red.

At least Paxton was with them this time, which meant neither of them could make the colossal mistake of putting their hands on each other again.

Roman paused in the midst of pocketing the key. “Do you want to hold onto it, or do you trust me?” He dangled it in the air between them in offer, silver winking in the outdoor lights streaming in through the windshield.

Didshe trust him? Hadn’t she just been thinking about that?

It was odd—she trusted Roman with her life, and she trusted him to keep her secrets, too… But she didn’t trust him with her heart. And she wasn’t so certain she trusted him not to ditch her, either.

Regardless, she told him, “You didn’t ditch me at Motel 58.” Itwasthe truth. “I think I trust you enough not to leave me now.”

She could have sworn his eyes tightened, the few gold flecks in his irises dimming, but she didn’t know what the reactionmeant.Washe planning on ditching her? Or was that just hertrust issues,as Roman liked to call them, speaking?

He watched her for a moment, as if trying to figure her out, before pulling the car into the parking spot in front of the door labeled with the number nineteen. No businesses were open at this hour for her to buy clothes, so Shay planned on sleeping in a bath towel. Sleeping nude wasn’t an option, and she couldn’t keep wearing this disgusting battle-suit forever. A towel would have to suffice, and hopefully the clothes she wore underneath would be salvageable enough to throw into the motel laundry machine.

If they evenhadone.

Shay got out and carried their bags in while Roman lifted a sleeping Pax out of the car and lay him down on one of the beds. Unsurprisingly, the room was a total shit-hole, but at least they had a place to sleep.

“You probably want to have a shower,” Roman whispered as Shay placed the bags on the tiny table and chairs by the window. “Bathroom’s all yours. I’m going to try calling the others.” He slid his hand into the back pocket of his jeans and took out his cell phone and a pack of smokes. He placed a cigarette between his teeth, eyes fixed on his phone. “I’ll be outside if you need me,” he added, the words muffled by the cigarette.

Again, he was gone before she could respond.

Shay blinked. He seemed to be making that a habit. It was perfectly reasonable for him to want to get a hold of Travis, but she couldn’t help but think he was using any excuse he could think of to carve out some space between them. They hadn’t talked much during the long ride here, though truthfully she hadn’t really known what to say. They’d both lived through a ton of shit recently and were more than a little exhausted. Maybe tomorrow would be different.

She disappeared into the dingy bathroom and shut the door.

Without the aid of the magic in the ring, the suit was absolute hell to remove. She had to take a knife to a few spots that were warped from the explosion and literally cut her limbs free. Now that she was off the Stygian salts, her cracked ribs were bothering her again, the searing pain making it even harder to get the suit off. She would have to ask Roman for more painkillers.

When she came out of the shower wrapped in a towel and opened the creaky bathroom door, she stepped on something soft.

A folded black band t-shirt lay on the floor. It was one of Roman’s.

She scanned the quiet room. Pax and the Familiars were the only ones in here, all of them asleep. Roman was still outside smoking, his silhouette barely visible through the crooked blinds on the window.

At some point in time, he’d paused what he was doing and had come inside to find a shirt for her to wear. Had placed it on the floor so she’d find it the minute she came out.

Shay stood there for a moment, shifting her weight, thinking up every possible excuse not to wear Roman’s shirt. It was too big; maybe he had few spares and would need this one back; it wasn’t her style; it had too many rips; she didn’t like the band. The last one was a total lie. In the end, she caved and put it on.

Just as she’d feared, it smelled like him—the cologne and body wash that had become her favorite scent. Gods above, was she weak.

But so was Roman. He knew better than to do this. Theybothknew better. They were playing with fire like a couple of pyromaniacs.

She stared at herself in the bathroom mirror, her body drowning in Roman Devlin’s shirt, and sighed.

This was going to make it even harder to get over him.

He was a fucking idiot,wasn’t he? Thebiggestfucking idiot in all of Terra.

Roman stood out front of the motel room, phone in hand, a fresh cigarette in his teeth. Silently kicking himself for giving Shay his shirt.

He could see her through the blinds, but he tried not to look. She’d come out of the bathroom wearing the shirt, the frayed hem skimming her toned thighs?—

And drawing his attention straight to her too-perfect ass.

Gods, she looked sexy in his clothes. That ass was hard to look away from, no matter what she was wearing, but especially in his clothes. His sexual past was extensive, the number of women he’d slept with high, thanks not just to his libido, but also his psychotic dad’s determination to wreck any relationship he tried to have. But Shayla Cousens had left the kind of impression on him that he was having a hard time shaking.