I hurl my crystal down in a burst of melodramatic rage, immediately regret it, and dive into the sand after it.
“Somebody’s gotta lose their shit while the emotionally unavailable hero with the perfect jawline makes unhelpful little quips and stares out at the horizon,” I mutter, digging frantically through hot, grainy earth.
Declan crouches beside me with aggravating grace, then plucks the rose quartz from the sand with two long fingers. “I would hand this over, but you insulted my emotional depth.”
“It’s not an insult,” I grind out, snatching it from his grip. “It’s a coping mechanism.”
We’re nose to nose now. A dry breeze drags hot fingers across my skin. Sweat soaks through his button-down, and it clings to his chest, outlining the smooth slopes of muscle. Not that I notice. I don’t. I’m not looking. He’s the worst. The absolute worst.
He tilts his head, his throat moving with a swallow. “You’re scared.”
“And you’re not?” I fire back.
“I don’t have the luxury of fear.”
“Oh, puke.” An incredulous bark of laughter flies past my lips. “That has to be one of the most emotionally constipated lines I’ve ever heard. You’re literally proving my point in real time,” I say, jabbing a finger in his direction. “I thought we got past all this bullshit, but I suppose that was just a continued effort to get into my pants.”
“It didn’t seem like I would have to make much of an effort.”
My jaw drops. “You know women are allowed to change their minds between hot DM banter and theactual act, right? And maybe I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t been so, I don’t know…” I shrug and tilt my chin. “Impossible to talk to.”
I drop back onto my heels, scrubbing a hand down my face. “There was a second at Ember when I thought we were the same. That you were nervous about seeing me, about everything going perfectly. That you and I were just two kind, sweet people hiding behind hyperconfident personas we built to survive dating apps.”
Wind tugs at my hair as I shake my head. “But I was wrong. You are exactly how you seem online—intense and damaged and moody—which is great for a fantasy and great for a meaningless fling but not great for this.”
His dark eyes narrow, brows knitting. “Not great for what?”
“For actually finding a solution,” I snap. “For talking through something. For doing more than growling and glaring and moving your eyebrows in place of real communication.”
A muscle ticks in his temple. “You say you’re kind, Amanda, but you’re not. All you’ve done since we landed…wherever this is, is tell me what a dick I am.”
“I wouldn’t tell you what a dick you are if you weren’t being such a dick.”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“Same.”
The sky is an impossible stretch of color, but I can’t look away from him. Our breathing syncs in ragged pulls as we stare each other down. A bead of sweat slips along the hollow of his throat, tracing a path along his skin before vanishing beneath the open edge of his collar.
Bastard.
“This is a test,” he says, rising to his full height and looking down his ridiculously straight nose at me.
The wind stirs, lifting a curtain of saffron silk from a nearby tent. It twists overhead in a hypnotic spiral, gliding through the dry air like a warning inked in color.
I rise too, a little less gracefully, my heels immediately sinking into the sand. “A test,” I deadpan. “Right. What kind of test physically snatches you off your feet and spits you through a flaming portal into…whatever the hellthisis?” I fling my arms wide. “Face it, Declan. The universe has kidnapped us.”
His eyes narrow. “Are you listening to yourself?”
“Are you looking around? That is a camel.” I motion to the snotty animal leaving fat footprints in the sand. “A camel.The universe is mad at me and—” A terrible thought slams into me, and my stomach flips. “Oh shit,” I whisper, clutching the rose quartz to my chest. “This is a test.”
He exhales, voice flat. “The universe is probably trying to see how long it takes before you manifest a nervous breakdown.”
“See? You’re a dick. That is dickish behavior. Which is really hard for me to say out loud because I’m all about love and light.”
“That was hard for you?”
“Yeah. Really,reallyhard. Had to work it around in my mouth for a while before I could get it out.”
