We were quiet for a moment while I tried to gather the nerve to talk about the elephant weighing on my chest.
I cleared my throat. “Now that I have you for a few minutes, should we talk about what happened? I mean… what you said that night.”
Owen shifted uncomfortably. He knew what I meant and clearly wasn’t very comfortable talking about it. But we needed to address it, before it festered into a sore. I wasn’t prepared to lose him.
“I wouldn’t have said it if I hadn’t been under the impression that we were going to die.” He turned to me, his eyes weary as he watched me for a while. “But I meant it. I’m in love with you, Ava. Have been for a while now.”
I closed my eyes and swallowed against the pain in my throat. I had been fearing losing Owen to Grayson. Not once did it cross my mind that I might lose my friend because I couldn’t return his feelings.
I opened my mouth, trying to find the right words to say, but Owen took my hand, squeezing lightly.
“You don’t have to say anything. I know you don’t feel the same way. You’re not ready. But someday you will be whole again. Someday you will be able to trust someone with yourheart again. And just maybe, that someone could be me.” He smiled down at our hands and my heart bled. “I will be patient, Ava. I won’t force anything on you that you’re not ready for. You’re my friend, first and foremost, after all.”
I felt a tear run hot down my cheek. “You shouldn’t waste your time on me, Owen. I’m damaged goods. And you deserve better. What if I can never be whole again?” I whispered brokenly. Maybe Owen and I would have been perfect for each other, once upon a time. It would have been easy to love him. As easy as breathing. But that was before Grayson. Before he corrupted and infected my very being with hissickness. Yet another thing Grayson had taken from me—Owen. Maybe Owen was supposed to be my forever.
“Impossible. I made a wish, remember? They always come true.” Owen had an easy smile on his face as he reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “You will be okay, Ava. I know it. You’ve already come so far.”
I wished it was true. “Is that why you turned down Claudia and her strap-on?” I tried to joke, tried to ease the bricks from my chest.
Owen scratched at his neck. “Sure.Definitely. It wasn’t the strap-on that scared me,at all.” He chuckled as if nervous. “I don’t scare that easily,” he added in a flustered tone.
I laughed soundlessly, taking a bite from my wrap and letting my head rest on his shoulder. “What if I have a strap-on too?”
“Like I said, I’m not scared. But unfortunately, your history with tarantulas is already pushing it, so…” he trailed off.
I snickered. “So, it’s a no on the strap-on. Got it. But have you ever heard of spider play? It’ll do wonders for your arachnophobia. I’ll even let you have a safe word.”
Owen gaped at me, making the laughter bubble up my throat. “I guess this is over before it even began.”
Ava
Somehow,Ifoundmyselfalone for the first time in months. Something I’d been actively avoiding. I sagged onto Owen’s couch, mindlessly flipping through the television channels. Owen was off with Syntax and Liam, questioning a billionaire who had senselessly bragged about being on the guest list for the Collectors’ Auction, which made it all the way to the FBI. I could feel it was a dead end. Five minutes of scrolling through his social media, and it was obvious the guy was no more than a pompous and extremely rude attention whore. It wouldn’t surprise me if Syntax found out that he wasn’t even a millionaire.
I wondered what the Apparitions… orCollectors, would be selling at their next auction. A memory of that storeroom in the underground bunker flashed through my mind. There wereso many precious things in there. I had helped Grayson pack everything away as we prepared to leave for Paris. I remembered my awe at touching a painting worth over two hundred million dollars.
“What, in here, did you enjoy stealing the most?” I turned to Grayson, who was carefully placing a marble statue in a protective case. I watched the muscles in his arm ripple as he slowly lowered the heavy statue onto the cushioning. He was so unbearably, indecently sexy.
“You.” He grinned down at me, sweeping a thumb over my cheek. “You’re the most precious thing I’ve ever taken. I actually feel bad for the people I took you from.” A flicker of remorse flitted across his face.
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of giving me back,” I teased, snaking my arms around his neck, pulling myself up to my tiptoes, hoping to feel his lips on mine.
Grayson’s thumb gently flicked across his scar on my hip, before his hands slipped around my waist, over the curve of my ass, then lifted me off the ground, bringing me even closer to his mouth. “They would have to pry you from my cold, dead hands, darling. You belong to me now. I stole you fair and square.”
My heart thundered against my ribcage. The look he gave me absolutely obliterated my insides. “I like the sound of that.” I tried to breathe. I had always despised the idea of belonging to a man, like women were nothing more than one of their objects to play lord and master over. But Grayson? He gave it a whole new meaning. He wanted to possess every inch of my body, my thoughts, my memories, my future, my being. He left no part of me untouched; he had every part of me tightly caged in the palm of his hand. And in return, he worshipped me. He deified everything about me, making me the reason for his breathing. Always looking at me like he was ready to slit his own throat, if only I spoke the words.
“What are you thinking, baby?”
I smiled. No thoughts were allowed to be secret. He wanted everything. And I wanted to give him everything. “I was thinking of how demanding you are,” I teased, nipping at his neck, feeling a shiver run through his body. “Of how you would snatch my soul if you could.” I pulled away to see his face.
A slow, devilish smirk tugged at his perfect mouth. “If Icould? Baby, it’s already mine.” He pulled away from me, setting me back on the ground, taking two steps back, out of my arms.
Disappointment flushed through me, and I ached to close the distance between us again.
Grayson gave me a knowing grin. “What are you feeling right now, Ava?” He leaned against the shelf, crossing his arms over his chest, his eyes inquisitive.
I bit at my lip, frowning. “What do you mean?”
“The feeling in your body right now. Describe it.”
