“Wait.” I froze, and he turned to look at me with concern. “You didn’t go back to your trailer?”
“No, I…” He ran a hand through his rainbow hair and shook it out, the way he did when he was nervous. “I stayed on the aerialist bus.”
My stomach pitched, and my guilt swelled. I didn’t mean to cause issues between him and Night; that was the last thing I wanted. He had seemed so sure at the club, but maybe he changed his mind once he was alone.
“Daze, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to make things awkward for you.” The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them. “We can forget about the whole night if it’s easier. I really didn’t want?—”
He gently held up a hand to cut me off, and the words died in my throat.
“It’s fine, cielito. I promise.” He stared down at me so intensely that heat crawled over my skin, and memories of last night came rushing back. What I wouldn’t give to drag him to adarkened corner and kiss him until I was breathless, but there were too many people around. Besides, Bobbitt might kill me if I ruined my makeup. We’d have to wait.
“Okay,” I murmured, still feeling like I’d caused a rift between him and the magician.
“I just needed space to think and Night…” His tone grew sharper at the magician’s name but went back to normal a second later. “...probably needed some, too.”
I wanted to argue, to tell him that he should have tried to talk to him, but I kept my mouth shut. It wasn’t my place to tell him what to do, and I didn’t know anything about Night. Maybe he really was just a giant asshole who didn’t deserve Daze.
“If we have time, I’ll let you swing on some silks. What do you say?” The aerialist turned and gestured for me to follow, clearly done with our previous conversation.
I laughed, imagining me tumbling out of the sky and embarrassing myself in front of the troupe. “Sure, as long as everyone’s expectations are on the floor.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
ZERO
Last night played in my mind on repeat like a bad dream, but I knew it had really happened. The cum-crusted T-shirt tucked next to my bed was proof enough but, more than that, Arina’s soft, stuttered breaths were burned into my mind.
They stood out in my thoughts like a goddamn neon sign.
Lying awake until Arina returned to the bus hadn’t been my plan, but every time I closed my eyes, there she was on the back of my eyelids. I laid there, clinging to the hope that she’d run off, that she wouldn’t come back to the bus.
But she did.
When the bus door opened sometime after midnight, I knew it was her. Everyone else had been in bed before ten—I checked before turning in. Her footsteps had been impossibly light as she made her way down the bus, shuffling around before disappearing into the bathroom. The second I heard the water turn on in the shower, my cock twitched.
The bratty little beta had been feet from me, naked and drenched.
I shouldn’t have been thinking about it. Hell, fucking her was thelastthing I needed to be thinking about, and then… I’d woken to her sensual, stuttered breaths as she touched herself.
Fuck.Thinking about it now, while I stood backstage waiting for the show to start, my cock thickened. I shifted against the wall to hide the tent in the front of my pants and crossed my arms over my chest.
I needed to get a grip. It had to be because I hadn’t gotten laid in months, but there wasn’t anyone worth my time in the troupe. I wasn’t like Revel, who had fifty-two thirsty females on speed dial at any given moment. I didn’t look for hookups in the various cities we stopped in.
I didn’t know what I was waiting for, but I knew one thing—itwasn’tArina.
Arina the beta.
Arina the obnoxious brat.
Arina…I groaned.
She had to go.
What pissed me off most about the situation was that I’d underestimated her.
I hadn’t expected someone so shy and timid to be so goddamn stubborn. I assumed she’d fold at the first glint of my knife, that she’d run away with her tail between her legs, but no. She’d stood in front of that target, unwavering, until I had nothing left to throw at her.
I did my best to make her walk away, but she stood ten toes down.
