Page 57 of Hunted By Fear

Rome hardly ever blushes; he’s crazy and loud and fun and owns it. It’s one of my favorite things about him.

“What?” I ask, unable to keep the giddiness from my tone. Which makes him purse his lips.

“And maybe someday with more than just you,” he says in a rush, looking down at our hands as if unable to meet my gaze.

What?

I don’t get it at first, but after a second, it clicks, and suddenly his pink cheeks make a lot more sense.

The vision I had at the house a few months ago comes back, and suddenly, my cheeks are hot as well.

“You guys are grossly cute, like give me a cavity or something.” Roger’s laugh cuts through our little moment, and it’s silly and adorable and totally fucking perfect.

It’s not real!

I know it’s all a lie, but it feels real.

How?

“Because you belong with me.” He speaks directly into my mind, making me jump even though his voice is soft, nothing like what I’m used to. And for once, he didn’t say I belong to him but, with him…

This is the Rome from this fake world he built, but despite how nice he might seem now, I know the real him. I’d been on the receiving end of his possessiveness for years.

“I was wrong. I didn’t know how to love you, but I’ll learn. You’ll see, we’ll be happy together, little butterfly.”

His words wrap around me like a physical caress, and I can’t fight the shiver that works its way down my spine, though I’m unsure if it's from fear or something much worse.

“No!” I scream, digging my hands in my hair and squeezing my eyes closed against the lie he wants me to believe as I fall to my knees.

It’s not real. It’s not real.

I repeat it over and over to myself like a mantra, but I can still feel him here in my mind, wading through thoughts and memories as if he belongs here.

“Aerilyn.”

He’s here; I can feel him, but I refuse to open my eyes and see him. I don’t trust myself not to fall back into his arms. I never want to see him again, but I also yearn for him.

“I’ve never loved anything, didn’t know there was a difference between loving and owning someone.” He moves forward, and I know he’s not done speaking, but I don’t want to listen. I cover my ears, curling in on myself in an attempt to make myself smaller.

It doesn’t matter because he’s speaking into my mind, but it’s all I can think to do.

“I can change. Let me be what you need. We were great together before they ruined it; you were happy.” His voice is pleading, something I didn’t even know Rome was capable of.Despite my better judgment, I peek up at him through my lashes, needing to see the regret in his voice on his face.

He deserves every ounce of regret and guilt.

My heart aches at the sight, but it also fills me with a sense of gratification.

Rome takes another step toward me, bending to be level with me, and I shrink away as he reaches out as if to touch me, but he never does.

His hand hangs in the air a few inches from my face, his brows drawn in confusion as he looks at me and then the space around me.

“What is this?” he hisses aloud for the first time since he entered my mind, and I hear the bite of anger I’m used to. “Aerilyn!” he demands, looking at me as if I have the answers.

I don’t.

I don’t even know what he’s talking about; I don’t see anything.

“Who did this?” he growls, pulling his hand back before it shoots forward again, only to stop in the same spot.