Page 81 of The Temptation of Truth

I shake my head again and wring my hands.

“Mabel, I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad. I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s none of my business. It’s not?—”

She cups my face in her hands, and my words evaporate between us. I can’t move. I can scarcely breathe as her amber eyes—eyes so full of emotion that it physically hurts—hold me in place. She opens her mouth twice without speaking as if warring with herself over something, and then her expression softens with resignation.

“Youare light, Aurora Jade.Youare energy. You’re creative and passionate, and I know there is confidence here. I’ve seen it. It’s been beaten back too fucking far, but it’s not lost. Do you understand? It’s not gone.”

Her words decimate me. I hear them. I feel them. I want to believe them. I want to so badly that I grow dizzy. When tears begin to roll down my cheeks, her thumb brushes them away, but she never lets me go.

“You’renot gone, Roar.”

She whispers the words, and they serve as a tether. A tug right at my chest that pulls me through the last of the thick fog and right off a cliff.

I don’t remember making the decision to move, but my mouth falls into hers perfectly. When she gasps, it’s a shot of adrenaline, and I feel more alive than I have in a long, long time. Her fingers tighten on my face as mine reach for her, needing to touch her. Needing an anchor. A reminder that she’s real. I run my palms over her smooth arms. Trail my hands up her delicate neck. Thread my fingers into her soft hair.Thisis real. It must be. It has to be, but it’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.

It's free-falling. It’s flying. It’s perfect.

On instinct, I trace my tongue along the seam of her lips. Mercifully, she parts them, and then our tongues are colliding. Dancing. Tangling. Hungry and desperate, but still graceful and soft. So, so soft. Just how I imagined it would be.

Mabel’s hand wraps around the side of my neck as her other hand grips my waist, pulling my body into hers. I whimper the moment we press together, but it’s not close enough. I want to be closer. My fingers tighten in her hair, and she moans into my mouth. I can feel her chest vibrate with it, and it makes every muscle in my body tremble. That spot between my thighs aches. My heart pounds so hard that I fear it might burst. And I want more. I want her. I want everything.

And then she’s gone.

Just like on the dance floor earlier, I’m hit with a wall of cool air in her absence, and I have to blink away the fuzz that’s all but filled my head. My hands stay open, suspended in the air, but now she’s out of reach. Steps away, staring wide-eyed at me in a way that makes me both proud and self-conscious. I don’t understand. I don’t know what’s happened.

“We can’t do that,” she says finally, and it knocks the air from my chest. I start to panic.

“Oh my God. I’m sorry. Of course. Of course you wouldn’t want to kiss me. Oh my God, I am so sorry.” I grab my hair and pull. I look everywhere but at her. “I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t. I’m sorry. I never should have assumed. I don’t even know why...I wasn’t...It was so stupid. I am such an idiot.”

“Hey. Stop it. You’re not an idiot. You’re not.”

“I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

“I kissed you back.”

My breath hitches. Shedidkiss me back. She did. Itwasreal, then. It wasn’t just in my head. But, God, why does she look so sad? What did I do wrong?

“Then why...then what...”

I trail off, and Mabel huffs a tired laugh. “You’re drunk.”

“I’m not. I’m not drunk. I only had two. Or maybe three. I’m not...at least I don’t think...”

“And I’m older than you. I’m in a position of power. I don’t want to take advantage of you when?—”

“You’re not in a position of power,” I interrupt. “You’re not my boss. Sav is. And you’re not that much older than me. Seven-ish years is basically nothing. You’re not taking advantage. I started it. I wanted it.”

Mabel smiles a soft, sad smile, then she takes a step forward, grabs my left hand and rubs my naked ring finger.

“You’re married, Aurora.”

There it is.

I stepped out of the fog, fell over the cliff, and this is where I crash right into the ground. I can practically hear the crunch of bone. I can absolutely feel it.

Brady.

I’m married.