“No…youmake mewary of you.”
“I would never hurt you.”
Selene couldn’t trust her own feelings toward him, let alone the man himself. Until that happened, he would have to deal with her distance.
“I’m not doing this with you,” she said, and shifted to pass him.
Roman sidestepped, blocking her. Eyes of blue and brown studied her face. She’d spent the better part of a year staring into eyes exactly like this, but where Augustus’s held warmth, Roman’s only mirrored back what he thought she wanted to see.
He reached out, and she flinched before he even touched her. His fingertips grazed the scar on her cheek. It was ugly and pink, and she could barely stand to see herself in a looking glass.
“Who did this?” he asked.
Selene shifted her cheek away. “My kidnapper during a fight.”
“Is he still breathing?”
“For now.”
“I hope to give him an answer for it, then.”
Her stomach lurched toward her knees, and she put a healthy step between them. “No one fights my battles for me. I’m capable of doing that all on my own.”
Except, in this case, she would step aside for Augustus. Thorne was the fleet’s villain more than he was hers.
“You may very well be, Eva, but why not let?—”
“My name isSelene.”
Roman shook his head. “It’s Eva. It’s always been Eva, the way I’ve always been Roman.”
“That’s not true?—”
“You’ve been away for a very long time,” he cut in. “No Mother. No guidance. Alone.”
“I haven’t been alone. I’ve had Augustus.”
Roman flinched, and his eyes went flat. “Who?”
Selene drew back even further. For nine days, she’d kept Augustus’s name and existence on the edge of everything, trusting her instincts to stay quiet about him. By the look on Roman’s face, she’d been right to do so, and it was clear he wasn’t going to let the slip go unanswered.
“Augustus is my…” She paused over the truth as she knew it. It was believed they were true soul mates, but she and Augustus chose a long time ago to dismiss the idea that they were fated just because a prophecy said so. Despite the fact that they returned to each other in every life.
“He’s the man I love,” she finally said, chin high. “Our souls always find each other.”
Roman’s jaw muscles flared like thick tree branches, and a flash of raw emotion lit his eyes. “I see.”
The truth of what he wasn’t saying struck her like lightning. “You know him.”
Roman bent over her, fingers curling into fists. “He’s notforyou.”
The words hit her like a slap—entitled, possessive,wrong.
Every emotion Selene had locked into a neat little box burst open and overwhelmed all sense, drawing her to her fullest height.No onedictated her choices.
“You know nothing about us,” she snapped, “and whatever this emotion is you’re feeling… Bury it. Who Augustus and I are to each other is not foryouto decide.”
Roman lengthened—he had to have a full foot on her—and he looked at her as if for the first time. As if he were indeed staring at a stranger. It was how it should have been from the beginning.
