“She isn’t,” Aura said quickly, like she hated that the first sentence had escaped wrong. “Bliss isn’t small. She’s loud and bossy and dramatic, and she cries at dog videos and still somehow thinks threatening men twice her size is a reasonable conflict-resolution strategy.”
“She’s all of that.”
“But she looked small,” Aura whispered, her fingers curling into the sleeves of my sweatshirt. “When Cade brought her in. When she was shaking and trying to act like she wasn’t terrified because he was in protect mode. She looked small, and I hated it. I hated that I couldn’t fix it. I hated that Charm looked at me like I might know what to do because I always know what to do, right? Aura has a plan. Aura is smart and tough. Aura can walk into any room and make everyone else bleed first.”
Her voice cracked on the final word, and she turned away like she could hide it from me.
I reached out and caught her chin, carefully but not gently. She resisted for half a second because Aura resisted everything on principle, but I turned her face toward mine anyway.
Her eyes were wet and furious, which was exactly like her. Even on the edge of breaking, she looked pissed that gravity had the audacity to pull tears from her eyes.
“You don’t have to fix Bliss tonight,” I said.
Her lips trembled once before she pressed them together. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t say nice things in that voice.”
“What voice?”
“The one that makes me want to believe you.”
That should not have hit me as hard as it did.
I kept my hand against her chin, my thumb resting below her bottom lip. “Believe me, then.”
She gave me a look. “That easy?”
“No.” My thumb moved once, slow and deliberate. “But you like hard things, so believing me should make you feel better.”
Her breath caught, and there she was again, the flash of want beneath all that fear and the way her body answered before her mouth could ruin it.
She hated that I saw it, so I looked harder.
“Easton,” she warned.
I smiled slightly. “There’s my name.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t be smug.”
“You said it first.”
“By accident.”
“Say it again.”
“No.”
I leaned in another inch. “Aura.”
Her pupils blew wide.
“You know the thing about your rules?” I asked.
She swallowed. “I didn’t bring up rules.”
“You didn’t have to. They’re all over your face.”
