Intrigued, Dare closes the distance between us, looking into my glistening eyes. “You care for her.”
“She’s my friend,” I say to make sure that’s clear. “I just like her, that’s all. As a person.” My heart thuds. “She’s not your competition, it’s nothing like that, I just… She doesn’t deserve to be scared or hurt, and I feel like it’s all my fault.”
My eyes are still full of tears. I’m so angry at myself for getting more and more emotional about this. All that will do is give him more cause for concern.
“You want to protect her,” he finally says.
Two tears slip over the rims of my eyelids and slide down my cheeks at the same time. I nod, unsure what to say that won’t make things worse.
He catches my tears on his fingertips, looking at them like they fascinate him.
“It must be horrible to feel so afraid,” he says calmly, rubbing his thumb over my tears until he’s rubbed them into his skin. “To feel so powerless,” he adds, taking a heavy step forward and meeting my gaze. “But you’re not powerless, are you? I told you Hannah would only be in danger if you left me, and you weren’t thinking about doing that, were you?”
It feels like a bucket of ice has been dumped into my veins. I shake my head. “No. Of course not.”
“No,” he says, though his tone is a bit mocking like he wants me to know he knows better. “Of course you weren’t.” He stops walking and looks me over. “Take off your clothes.”
My heart sinks, but I do as he says, quickly removing my PJs and tossing them in the corner. I stand here in just my panties as he roams closer.
“Those, too.”
My hands are unsteady as I push down my panties, step out of them, and then kick them aside.
“Get on the bed,” he says.
I take a few breaths, trying to keep calm as I back up and climb on the bed.
The mattress sinks under his weight as he climbs on with me. “Are you afraid of me, mermaid?”
That question when he’s using that nickname makes me feel emotional all over again. “I don’t want to be,” I say, since it’s the closest thing to the truth I think won’t offend him.
“You don’t have to be,” he says, gently laying his hand over my bare tummy. “It doesn’t bode well that you are already. I don’t like to think Anae was right, but maybe I am too dark for you.” He circles my belly button with the tip of his finger. “Unfortunately, I’ve already decided you’re mine, and you being afraid of me won’t change that.”
I don’t like to think that Anae was right, either, and I definitely don’t like to imagine being trapped in a relationship with someone I’m afraid of. “Are you like this with her?” I ask, hating that I even have to.
He lies on his side, sliding his hand up toward my rib cage. “No. To be honest, you trigger completely different instincts in me than she does. None of this would ever work on her, so why would I do it? That’s a lot of effort for no result.”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
Lightly, he drags his fingertips over my skin causing goosebumps to sweep over me. “There are two types of people in the world, Aubrey. Predators and prey. You’re prey. Hannah’s prey. Anae and I are both predators. We don’t hunt each other. We hunt you.”
My eyes widen.
“Tactics that work like a charm with you wouldn’t move the needle at all if I tried them on her. I can’t bully her by threatening violence against people she cares about because she doesn’t care about anyone,” he adds. “What’s the point in threatening to burn the world if the person just shrugs and genuinely doesn’t give a fuck? You, I can bully by threatening violence to Hannah. Hannah, I can injure just by ripping up a piece of fucking paper. In that sense, it’s much different with you. I know it’s not nice, but when I want to win, I know I can because I know exactly which buttons to push to completely disarm you.”
“You didn’t always win with her?”
“No, I did, but the games were different. For example, her trying to drown you at the beach the other day because I was making her mad. Not the kind of thing you would ever do, and see how the strike wasn’t even at me, it was at the prey she knew I was hunting?”
Hunting.
He is saying a lot of things.
His hand stills on my belly and he meets my gaze. “She didn’t try to take me down, she just tried to take my kill. It’s almost sportsmanlike.”
His words turn my blood to ice water. “So, I don’t really mean anything to you, then? I’m just… prey?”