“You really think that will stop me?”
Aiden dives straight to my shirt and undoes the first button. I’m so shocked that I stare with parted lips without reacting. It’s not until he gets to the second button that I push at his chest.
“W-what the hell are you doing?” I shriek.
He pauses, tilting his head to the side with that manic expression. “Are you going to give me the phone?”
“N-no.”
He continues his ministrations with the buttons of my shirt. My throat closes and I feel myself about to start hyperventilating. I push him, but his hold is steel. Impenetrable, hard steel.
“S-stop!!”
There’s a strange rush flowing through my veins and tightening my muscles. I have no idea how to explain it except that Aiden needs to get his freaking hands off me.
I push at his chest again, but he already has the three first button opened so the edge of my bra is visible.
My lips part when I realise what else is in full view.
My surgery scar.
For years, I did everything in my power to make sure no one saw it. I never wore low-cut shirts. I bought one-piece swimsuits that hid my chest. I don’t even like showing it to my aunt. Kim probably saw it twice and even then, only by accident.
And now, Aiden is staring at it.
No. He’s not only staring. He’s devouring it with his gaze as if it’s some sort of wonder.
He stops unbuttoning my shirt, but he hasn’t removed his fingers from the fourth button. In fact, he undoes it so the shirt is open to underneath my bra and he has a full view of the diagonal scar at the top of my left breast.
Ugly.
Long.
Faded.
The reason I started hiding it is because of the pitiful looks people gave me. Even Aunt Blair gives me that look sometimes.
However, Aiden’s expression is anything but pity.
I didn’t expect such emotion to exist in his black soul, but I thought there would at least be a softening of his devilish heart.
I couldn’t be more wrong.
His eyes were murderous before, but now he seems like he wishes he had a knife to slice my scar open and rip out my heart.
Twigs crush underneath nearby footsteps.
I shake myself out of my stupor, push him away, and turn around to re-button my shirt. My breathing shortens despite my attempts to regulate it.
Behind me, I can feel his unwanted heat near my back. One step closer and he’d be breathing down my neck — or probably chopping it off.
“Mate.” Xander’s cool voice sounds from behind me. “You caught yourself an ice princess?”
“Actually, the ice princess is for you. She has something of yours.”
Once my shirt is buttoned — with the phone still tucked in my bra — I whirl around. Getting on my tippy toes, I peek around Xander but there’s no sign of Kim.
Xander appears victorious like he just did something to be proud of.