Page 68 of Heartless

I sure as hell didn’t wanthimto touchme.

I scrambled off the side of the bed, as far away from him as I could get. Glanced down. Shit, my boots were on the other side, next to him.

Not that it mattered. Boots were the least of my worries. I’d played this cat and mouse game with him before.

I always win.His smug response played in my head like a broken record.

Was that what he wanted here? To win? Win what?

“You are my mate, Willow. You will stay here, with me. I will fuck you, as I have seen the others do, in your memories. You will bear my children.”

“No.” Never. He’d never tried anything like this before.

I had to get the hell out of here. Wait!

I patted the pocket that held my—

“Looking for this, my Willow?” Nexus 5 held my transport beacon in one hand. He tilted his head to watch me as he wrapped his hand in a fist around it. He made no expression, no other movement, as he crushed the technology in his hand. He rubbed his fingers across his palm and lowered his gaze as we both watched slivers and dust float to the floor.

Shit.

Now what?

What would Zarren do, if he was here, in a body my size? With no boots?

I got nothing.

Well, think of something.

You first.

He will come for me. Both of them will come.

Nexus 5 drifted across my thoughts like a shadow, his presence a chill I recognized…

“Oh, god.” I wrapped my arms around my waist and stared. “It was you. I was feeling you.” The unease and anxiety. Nerves, I’d thought. The feeling of dread. Fear. The headache. Not wine induced.Him.All of it because thisthinghad been in my head.

“I have a name, mate. Although, if you prefer to call me a more human title, I will allow it.”

How about asshole?

Are you trying to get us killed?

Nexus 5 chuckled again, his laughter one of the strangest things I’d ever heard. “I was thinking, perhaps Phillip?”

“That’s my father’s name.” What the hell? Did he want me to call himDaddy?Because that was not fucking happening.

“The name of a male you cared for and trusted. Someone you loved.”

“He’s dead.”

“Very well.” I felt him move around inside my head, searching. “Joseph?”

A fellow officer. A friend from long ago. “No. Why are you doing this? You know I will never agree. I will never stop trying to get away from you.”

He turned and walked away from me, toward what I realized was a blank monitor of some kind. He waved his hand and the screen filled with images I recognized. The Hive base.

Enzo and Ruk’sship.