Strength (Mark of Nexus #1) (43 page)

“About everything!”
Geez.
Was he trying to exasperate me?

He went on, unshaken, “Well, tomorrow we’ll go back to campus, and you can return whoever’s car you borrowed or hotwired or—”

“Funny,” I said, making a face. “It’s Aiden’s. He let me borrow it.”

A humorless smile was lost to his eyes. “Great. He’ll have more reason to hate me, after he finds out what you borrowed it for.”

“He doesn’t hate you.” Honestly, how could he even think that? Aiden was a cute little pacifist. He didn’t just randomly hate people. Sure, he was easily intimidated and prone to blowing things out of proportion, but malicious? Not even close.

Wallace gave me a look that said he knew more than he’d been letting on.

I tilted my head. “What?”

“What’re you going to tell your friends about tonight?” he asked, changing the subject.

I didn’t want to lie. I’d just have to find a way to omit the important parts, while staying beneath the umbrella of truth again.

“I’ll be vague,” I said. “We were out of town because you had some tragic, personal matters to attend to. We stayed with your family afterward. The end.”

“Lying by omission?”

“Does it count as lying when it’s none of their concern, and the omission is to protect them?”

He mulled it over. “I guess not.”

“Speaking of which,” I continued. “What’re we going to do about Faye?”

It took him longer to respond this time. “I guess we have no choice but to wait until she contacts you and go from there.” He worked the muscles in his jaw. “But don’t worry about it. We’re in this together. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

I wish I could’ve taken solace in his words and left it at that, but there was still too much left on my mind. “Do you think she’s given up trying to recruit us?”

He let out a deep breath. “I think she’s switching tactics. She’s too analytical to kill us without understanding the threat we posed in that vision.”

“And once she figures it out?”

“We’ll worry about that when the time comes.”

How could he be so calm about everything? “What about this movement they’re trying to start?” I asked. “Isn’t it dangerous? Don’t you think we’re going to have to do something about it?”

“I have no doubt in my mind we will, but until the time comes…” He pressed his lips to my forehead, calming the anxiety that threatened to spill over. “Don’t try to take the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

The fatigue was starting to catch up with me. I melted against him, squeezing my eyes shut. “What if I take it on anyway? What if I can’t help myself?”

“Then I’ll carry it for you.”

I sighed, slipping my hand up along his cheek. “I know you will.”

“Not that you’ll let me,” he mumbled, ducking his head down. His dark hair, still slightly damp, stuck every which way.

My brows stitched together. “What do you mean by that?”

He didn’t say anything.

“Hey…” I scooted until our bodies were flush against each other, separated by a sweltering barrier of Egyptian cotton. “What’s wrong?”

Again, he didn’t reply, and I felt a small pang of worry.

“Wallace,” I urged, placing a soft kiss at the crook of his neck. “Talk to me.” I moved upward, feeling his pulse pound fast and strong against my lips. My own rhythm quickened in response, as I kissed a warm trail to his jaw line. “Please.”

He shuddered, and there was no masking his reaction against me. “Sorry,” he murmured and pulled his hand away from its place at my hip. “What were you saying?”

We were dizzyingly close as he turned to look at me, less than a breath away. My heart hammered against my chest at his expression. “I-It doesn’t matter now.”

For a second, I thought I’d caught a glimpse of forever in his eyes—beautiful and just out of reach. I leaned in, unnerved and entranced at the same time. It all made sense now. What my mother had meant when she said when I fell in love, I would just know.

I knew.

I finally freakin’ knew.

It resonated in my heart and pulsed through my veins. Wallace had caused something to change within me, and I hadn’t even realized it. “I…love you,” I whispered, still in shock.

Sure, I’d yelled it before in desperation—trying to force my feelings to save him—but it hadn’t been the same. This was the gritty, sick to your stomach, kind of confession that left you empty and whole at the same time. I couldn’t begin to describe it.

The band on my arm burned. I wanted more than tonight, more than forever. The joy, the pain, and everything in between. I wanted that.

With painstaking care, he cupped the side of my face and stroked his thumb over my cheek. “I love you, too.” The moment hung in the air as he stared into my eyes, before pressing his lips to mine—a loving prelude to the life I knew we’d both been imagining. Maybe it would never come to pass, but it was a delusion worth paying homage to.

I lay there breathing in his scent, memorizing the hard contours of his chest with my hands. Our worlds were blending into one, and I was doing everything in my power to savor it. We both knew it wouldn’t last long.

Wallace couldn’t quell his anxiety. Each skin-searing touch carried an undercurrent of guilt neither one of us could ignore. Soon, we’d be forced to part, too tired to push any boundaries.

I didn’t mind, though. As much as I hated to admit it, I knew it would be better for both of us in the long run. We had to work up to that level of trust—not just in each other, but in his ability to control his strength. Until then, we’d have to cherish what we had. What we’d already worked up to.

He smiled against my mouth and pulled away. “We’d probably better…”

“Yeah.” I carefully extracted myself from his possession, clutching the towel to my chest as I stood. “Goodnight, Wallace.”

Wistful eyes traced my every move as he leaned toward the nightstand, a shaky sigh escaping his lips. “Goodnight.”

I had barely pulled the sheets up around my chest, when something shattered and the room plunged into darkness.
Don’t tell me.
“Wallace?”

“Yeah?”

“Are we going to have to pay for a light in the morning?”

“No.” He hesitated for a moment. “But Cole is.”

I couldn’t keep the laughter from spilling out, shaking the mattress. A few seconds ticked by and he joined me, snickering under his breath at the ridiculousness of our situation. We lay there in the dark, laughing like we hadn’t just escaped death, like we wouldn’t have to cheat it again tomorrow and every day after.

Maybe Wallace was right about the bond. It did change me—for the better.

All because I fell in love with a madman.