Page 82 of Should Our Stars Collide

“Are you telling me you didn’t notice Cal was acting weird?” Gabe challenges him.

“Yeah, like, manipulative-bastard-faking-amnesia-and-acting-all-innocent kind of weird, not paranormal-entity-hijacked-a-corpse weird!”

“Kieran—”

He waves him off and bolts out the door, stumbling into the street like he’s running from a bomb threat. The world outside feels too loud, too bright,toomuch. Everything has been too much since he was dropped here by some cosmic force.

His heart is hammering. His breath’s coming too fast, and the edges of the sky start closing in.

The last thing he registers is the sound of his name, distorted and coming from far away, and then just an endless stretch of dark.

20

Kieran comes to with a pounding headache and hungry as hell. He groans, willing his body to sink into the mattress. It’s a damn good mattress; it practically feels like a cloud. Blinking his eyes open, he can see he’s not in the guest bedroom.

“Hey,” comes from his right. “Are you with me?”

Ash is perched on the edge of the bed, brows furrowed like a concerned mother hen. Right. Because Kieran fainted like a damn damsel in a romcom.

Kieran harrumphs and throws a hand over his eyes to block out, well, the whole world. “Unfortunately.”

Ash chuckles. “Yeah, you’ll be alright.”

Kieran peeks at him. “Why are you smiling? I didn’t say anything nice.”

“You’re not exactly a nice person.”

Fair, but rude. “Fuck you too.”

“But you are kind, in your own way,” Ash goes on unprompted. “Funny, passionate, stubborn.” He smirks. “Hot as hell.”

“Will you stop?” Seriously. Every. Time.

He sits up, propping himself against the headboard and massaging his temples.

“Why? You like it.”

“No, I don’t.” Hedoesn’t.Not even a little. Not even a tiny bit.

He accepts the glass of water Ash silently offers him. Fuck, he’sparched and definitely dehydrated, not having drunk anything since yesterday afternoon. No wonder he fainted.

He downs the whole thing at once.

“You know I can tell when you’re lying, right?” Ash reminds him.

Kieran tenses, almost having forgotten that not even his thoughts are safe from Ash. “Get out of my head.”

“I don’t have to read your mind for that. Iknowyou.”

Kieran watches his eyes carefully. No color change, just Ash staring at him intently, as usual.

“While we’re on the topic,” he starts. “I want you to be honest with me.”

“I’m always honest, Kieran,” Ash reassures him, and fuck, Kieran shouldn’t just take his word for it. He shouldn’t feel his whole being relax in response. He shouldn’t blindly trust him.

He shouldn’t do a lot of things when it comes to this infuriating man.

“Have you ever done anything to me? To my mind, I mean. With that—” he wiggles his fingers. “Weird mojo of yours?”