Page 54 of Scarlet Wars
I swallowed hard, willing my emotions not to surface. “I didn’t lie,” I admitted quietly.
Caden took a step forward, his voice low and raw. “Do you still feel that way?”
Did I still feel attraction to the most maddeningly intense—and stupidly beautiful—man I’d ever met?
To the need that had gnawed at me through weeks of grief and agony, sometimes even providing a dangerous kind of comfort in the darkest hours?
I only hesitated for a beat before I nodded once, words completely abandoning me.
“Fuck, Emma,” he said, stepping closer. The air between us grew hotter with every inch he closed. “Are you serious?”
The fire in his eyes lit a match under my skin. It burned exactly as it had my last night at Crown. And I was thrown by how easily I still caught the heat.
“When we said our goodbyes on my last night at Crown, before all of this shit happened, I was…” My words faltered.
Gods, what was I going to say?
He lifted a brow, stepping in again. “You were what?”
I clenched my jaw. Damn him for making me say it out loud. “Well… You know.”
Caden took another step, his body so close now I could feel the heat rolling off him.
“I don’t,” he said, voice quiet and relentless. “What do I know?”
Jesus.Couldn’t he just…get it? Couldn’t he read between the lines like a normal person instead of dragging it out?
“You know, like…” I gestured vaguely, grasping at invisible explanations. My brain short-circuited halfway through the sentence. “There was something between us. And that doesn’t disappear simply because the world decided to dump a thousand pounds of trauma on my shoulders.”
I exhaled hard, my cheeks burning. “It’s obviously just a physical thing. You say something or look at me a certain way, and I get all…”
I waved my hand in a helpless circle between us, as if it could explain what my mouth couldn’t.
His gaze dipped to my lips, lingered, then climbed slowly back to meet mine.
“All what?” he asked, sounding rougher now. Darker.
“Flustered,” I muttered.
The word came out softer than I wanted, like it had betrayed me on its way out. Heat crawled up my neck, flooding my face.
“Flustered,” he repeated slowly, as if he were tasting it, trying to decipher its meaning as if it were some foreign concept.
“Yes, flustered,” I snapped, my embarrassment sparking into irritation. “I don’t expect you to know how that feels, but let me tell you, it’s really inconvenient.”
“Inconvenient.” His tone was almost mocking this time, as his lips curled into the faintest smirk.
“Seriously, stop repeating everything I say!” My patience gave way, burst into flames, and took all my dignity with it. “Youwant me to admit whatever the hell this is, when you’re not even…” I hesitated, swallowing the words clawing their way up my throat.
His head tilted, eyes narrowing, the playful edge vanishing in an instant. “When I’m not even what?”
I looked down at the floor for a second, my chest tightening as the vulnerability lodged itself there. “Do you have any idea how pathetic it makes me feel to admit I’m attracted to you when you’re not even in the same boat?”
Silence.
Then Caden blinked, realization dawning like the slow burn of a fire catching on dry kindling. “You think I’m not in the same boat?”
I shrugged, avoiding his gaze, and mumbled, “You never said.”
