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“I held you down and forced your mouth open as Marcus gave you the Elixir.” He shook his head a little, as if he was dumbfounded by his own actions. “You begged for me to stop and I didn’t. I watched the Elixir take hold, and it was mewho became your Master. I can’t…” He cut off and turned away.

Tears filled my eyes. Wanting nothing more than to take that guilt away, I was at a loss as to how I could. I stepped behind him, wanting to just hug him until he understood I didn’t blame him. If there was anyone else more stubborn than me in this world, it was Aiden. If the tables were turned, Aiden would’ve had something ridiculously supportive to say. He would use an eloquent mash-up of words that meant something, and when that didn’t work, he would just tell me how it was.

I didn’t have pretty words, so I settled on second—er, third best. “Look, I hate to cut through your self-pity with a big dose of grow-up.”

Turning around, Aiden’s brows shot up and he opened his mouth.

“No.” I placed my hand over his lips—his warm, warm lips. My entire arm tingled from the contact. “You had to make a tough decision. All of you did. I was Evil Alex. And I remember threatening to pull out Deacon’s ribcage. I can understand why you did it.”

He wrapped his fingers around my wrist and gently removed my hand, though he didn’t let go. Score! “Alex, this isn’t about you forgiving me.”

“Then what’s it about?” I moved closer, my thighs knocking into his locked knees. “I forgive you. Hell, there’s nothing to forgive. And if anything, I should be thanking you.”

Dropping my hand, he looked away and shook his head as he moved to the couch, sitting heavily. “Don’t everthank me for putting you on the Elixir.”

“Ugh!” I threw up my hand. I was this closeto knocking him off the couch. “I wasn’t thanking you for that. I was thanking you for not giving up on me. For still being there for me when I was acting like a psycho.”

He stared up at me, stony as ever.

“I want to strangle you.”

Aiden arched a brow.

I let out a long breath. “We’ve all done things that we regret. I’m living with the fact that I threatened everyone that I care about. You have no idea the things I thought—the things I believed in—when I was connected with Seth. Or maybe you do, but it’s not the same. And if I can get over it, then by gods, you need to get over it.”

His mouth opened, but I wasn’t done. “I need you right now, more than ever. And I don’t need you to just hold me at night.” I paused, frowning. “Even though that’s really nice and all, I need you to really be here.”

Hurt flashed in his silvery eyes. “I am here for you.”

“You’re not.” I shook my head. “You can’t be when you’re sulking around here, blaming yourself for something you had to do. I need you to man up, Aiden.”

“Man up?” He sat back in a lazy, arrogant sprawl, but the coiled tension was in every muscle in his body. “It’s a good thing I love you or I’d find that particularly insulting.”

“If you love me, you’d get over this. You’d deal with it, accept that you had to do it, and get past it.” My breath got caught. “Because I’m scared out of my mind, Aiden, and I don’t know how any of us are going to survive what’s happening. Right now, I need you— allof you. We— we—are more important than your guilt, or at least I thought so, but apparently I’m wasting my breath.”

I was really close to tipping the couch back and dumping him off of it, but he shot up and was in front of me before I could blink an eye. He wrapped an arm around my waist and our eyes locked. Everywhere our bodies touched, heat rushed to the surface. It wasn’t like I had forgotten what it was like to be in his arms, I just wasn’t prepared for it.

I could never be prepared for it.

Neither was Aiden. His eyes were burning a liquid silver and his arm tightened around me. “I would nevergive up on you, Alex. Never.”

“Then why are you being such a—”

“What?” His voice dropped low. “I’m being what?”

Infuriating. Stubborn. Thick-skulled. Freaking sexy. “Good gods, can we stop arguing and just, I don’t know, make out?”

A deep, husky laugh rumbled through his body and teased mine. “Is that what you want?”

More than the air I breathed. “What do you think?”

He moved forward, backing me up until I was pressed against the closed door. “That I’m seriously in love with your one-track mind.”

I opened my mouth to point out that my multitasking skills had drastically improved, but Aiden took advantage. His mouth was on mine, and the kiss—oh, the kiss killed that freshly acquired skilled. Blew it right out the window.

When he lifted his head, just by the slightest, I gasped.

“Okay. You may have a point,” he said.

“A point?” I thought I’d made several.

“It’s hard, Alex, remembering how you were,” Aiden admitted quietly. He slid a hand through the mess of hair at the nape of my neck, sending shivers dancing over my skin. “I hated it. Hated every moment of it.”

I placed my hand on his cheek. “I know.”