Aiden.
Oh, my Aiden. My heart, the very air I breathed equaled Aiden. But his name disappeared in the mad rush of Seth’s touch. I shifted restlessly, needing to be closer, and I thought I’d moved at first, but I hadn’t moved at all. I tried to again, but my body wouldn’t respond.
“We should stop here, Angel,” Seth whispered against my lips, even as he slid a hand under my hip, lifting me, bringing me closer.
Closer. Hadn’t that been what I wanted all long? Didn’t I still want that? I just couldn’t get closer. My hands slipped off his back and then my arms fell limply to my sides.
Seth lifted his head and two bright, nearly iridescent eyes filled my vision. They were hazy, clouded with passion. I think he frowned, but then his face blurred in and out.
“Alex? What…? Oh, hell.”
Concern replaced lust, passion—whatever he’d felt. He sat back, pants sliding low on his hips as he pulled me into his lap. “Alex, are you in there?” He brushed the hair off my face.
“I’m… so tired. Sorry…”
He smiled, but it rang false. “I know. It’s okay.”
I shivered, unable to wrap my arms around myself. Where had all that heat gone?
Seth got his other arm around me and stood, cradling me like he’d had a lot of experience carrying girls. Judging by his recent actions, I think he did. He placed me on the bed and hovered over me. “You still there?”
I blinked slowly, his face going in and out. “I’m… sleepy.”
“Okay.” Seth leaned in and brushed his lips over my forehead. I squeezed my eyes shut, stomach twisting when he disappeared.
A few seconds later, he returned to my side and helped me get into a shirt that fell to my knees. Things were kind of hazy after that. Numbness settled so deep in my bones, I started to believe that my limbs weren’t connected anymore. Unable to move, unable to say more than a few words at a time, I lay there and tried to figure out what was going on with my body.
Lust and all those other warm, wonderful feelings had vanished. So had the numbness, and in their place was a godsawful feeling in the pit of my stomach. I squeezed my eyes shut again and tried to breathe through the sharp rise of nausea. It didn’t help. A twisting and churning motion swept through me. Oh, gods, this wasn’t going to be good. I was going to puke. I could feel—taste it—and I couldn’t move. A soft whimper escaped my lips.
The bed dipped beside me and a warm hand brushed across my cheek. “You hanging in there?”
“Sick,” I gasped out.
Seth scooped me up in one swipe and carried me to the bathroom. The part of my brain that still functioned on normal Alex level noted that his bathroom was bigger than my entire room, and much nicer. So not fair. But then I stopped thinking altogether. The moment he held me over the toilet, I started heaving. Once I started, I couldn’t stop.
I really don’t know how long I remained latched there or how in the world Seth stomached all of it, holding me up and keeping my hair out the way. Only when my sides ached and my eyes leaked did the painful heaving subside.
“Better?” Seth smoothed the damp strands off my forehead.
“I want to die,” I moaned pitifully. “I think I’m… dying.”
“No, you’re not.” Seth shook his head. “Water will help. Just hold on to—” He tried to keep me upright, but I slipped to the floor. “Or just lie down. That works, too.”
I pressed my forehead against the cool tile. It helped with the hot feeling, but my head throbbed something fierce. Moaning, I wrapped my arms around my waist and curled into a ball.
Seth cursed under his breath. I felt him stand and go back into the bedroom. I hoped he left me there. I never wanted to move ever again. I could rot there, as long as the pounding went away and the room stopped spinning.
But he returned a few seconds later and forced me to sit up. He barely got one bottle of water in me. I struggled, slapping his hands away a dozen times. Seth was halfway through forcing a second bottle when someone knocked at the door. We heard it swing open.
Seth swore again, put the bottle of water down, and eased me back to the floor. Ah, the cool floor was my friend—friend? I missed Caleb. I missed him so terribly.
“Where is she? Seth?” Aiden’s firm voice called from the bedroom.
“Dammit,” Seth muttered, standing. “She’s fine,” he called out. “Just needs a few more minutes to hang on to the floor.”
I wanted to hit him.
Seth left the bathroom then, and the silence from the other room stretched out long, becoming ripe with tension. My mind provided the images of what the room must’ve looked like to Aiden. And shirtless, pants-unbuttoned Seth. Surely—surely Seth would’ve taken five seconds to button them?
I heard Seth sigh. “Look, I know all this looks really bad. It’s not what you think.”
“This isn’t what it looks like?” Aiden growled, and I’d never heard his voice sound that way before, so hard and flat but with an edge that trembled with the promise of violence. “Really? Because I think this belongs to Alex.”
I cringed, wishing I could sink through the floor and disappear. A mass of confusion and unease formed in my delicate stomach. Then Aiden stood in the doorway to the bathroom, and I knew I must’ve looked a mess. Damp hair clung to my skin; the room smelled of sickness, and I was dressed in Seth’s shirt and little else.
“Aiden,” I said weakly. “It’s not—”
“Seth, I trusted you.” Aiden’s voice was filled with cold steel.