Free Stunned (The Lucidites Book 2) by Sarah Noffke Page A

flashes on his usually happy face. I’m being cruel. And I want to take it back, but my pride won’t let me.
    “Look, I really need to get out of here,” I say, panic creeping into my head, creating dizziness. “Now,” I add.
    “George said you were staying until the twenty-seventh, that’s four days away.”
    “No.” I roll my eyes. “I need to get out of here.” I point to the floor to indicate the elevator.
    He looks at me earnestly. “Roya, please reconsider this whole—”
    “No.” I shake my head, cutting him off. “I’ve made up my mind.”
    His blue eyes, his face pleading—they’re threatening my resolve. I wish everything was as simple as he tries to make it. “Why do you have to make me so crazy?” I ask in desperation.
    He smirks, but still holds his arms across his chest. “What you’re feeling is completely mutual, if it makes you feel any better.”
    “Good,” I say, hostility saddling my tone.
    He glares at me.
    “Why are you trapping me in this elevator?” I say, enunciating each word through clenched teeth.
    He draws in a breath and loosens his arms. “Because you ignored my note. You’re so stubborn and I love that about you, but damn it,” he says with a growl low in his throat.
    I’m starting to feel lightheaded. Please don’t pass out here. Please . The walls are closing in on me. I wish he’d start the elevator back up. I never thought I was claustrophobic, but in this tight compartment, overflowing with all our emotions, I am.
    “We need to talk,” he says.
    “No. I don’t want to, not after that whole Amber fiasco.”
    “I fired her.”
    The words strike me with coarse surprise. I expected a dozen different responses, but not this one. “What?” I say in a hush.
    “You were right,” he says, softening. “Her intentions weren’t professional, and I learned that much when I confronted her. I wanted to know why she lied about the massage.”
    “Oh,” I say, floored. “So you really didn’t give her a massage?”
    “Of course not. I may be a guy governed by certain urges, but I’m truly not an idiot .”
    Guilt courses through me at the mention of that word, at the memory of insulting him with it. “Aiden, when I called you that I thought—”
    “I know what you thought and completely understand why. Roya, if the roles had been reversed, I’d have been beyond jealous.” He hesitates, on the verge of saying more. My heart beats slowly, hanging on his every word. Beating by it. Living for it. “I would have been enraged to think anyone had their hands on you in that way,” Aiden says, a bitterness in his voice. “It would have driven me crazy.”
    “So you fired her?” I ask, still in frozen disbelief.
    “Yes. She has seventy-two hours to pack up and get out of the Institute.”
    “Wow, that seems harsh,” I say, locking my eyes on the floor.
    “Roya,” Aiden begins, “she’s a liar, and making advances toward her superior is not even the top reason I terminated her. I don’t know exactly why she lied. Maybe she was hoping to get me in trouble with the Institute. All I know is what she did hurt you and I won’t stand for that.”
    My eyes eagerly find his. In this oxygen-deprived elevator his desire is tangible, like an electrical current pulsing through a wire. Aiden grips my elbow and I don’t resist when he tugs me closer. He tilts his head and seems to marvel at me, like I hold some truth to life’s mysteries. And for a moment his expression startles me, but in this stuffy elevator that’s all I see. His affection engulfs the space. I feel his loyalty in every touch, every breath. And I can’t believe I questioned it.
    Aiden’s passion, which I’ve craved, is finally unleashed when he kisses me. A gasp escapes my lips. My stomach lurches forward as if trying to grasp onto something. I’m breathless, but not from being stuck in the elevator. The space isn’t too small; instead the space between us now feels too vast. He softly