"Now that scares me," Stark said.

"What scares you?"

"Chicks' purses. Or at least all the weird stuff you people keep inside of them."

"Us people? Jeesh. We're girls, and purses just have girl stuff in them." His normal-sounding guyness was making me smile.

"There's no just about purse stuff," he said. And I swear I felt him shudder.

I laughed out loud this time. "My grandma would say that you're a conundrum."

"Is that good or bad?"

ses. @ E

"A conundrum is something that's puzzling, even kinda paradoxical. For instance, here you are this macho, dangerous, warrior guy who can't miss anything he shoots at, but you're totally squeed out by girls' purses? It's like they're your spiders."

He chuckled. "My spiders? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, I don't like spiders. At all." I shuddered like he'd just done.

"Oh, I get it. Yeah, purses are my spiders. Really big spiders you can open up and they're filled with a whole nest of baby spiders."

"Okay! Okay! You're totally grossing me out. Let's change the subject."

"Sounds good to me. So...I think you have to be touching whoever you're sleeping with for this to really work." His voice sounded weirdly intimate coming from the darkness beside me.

"Yeah, sure." My stomach felt all fluttery, and not just because we'd been talking about spiders.

His sigh was heavy and long-suffering. "I'm telling you the truth. Why do you think it doesn't keep him away if you're just sleeping with a roommate? You have to be touching. A guy and a girl. I guess a guy and a guy would work, too, if it was like Damien and his boyfriend. Or even a girl and a girl if they were into each other." He paused. "I think I'm babbling."

"I think you are, too." Actually, babbling was usually what I did when I was nervous, and it was refreshing to meet someone else who was a nervous babbler.

"You really don't have to be scared of me. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Because you know I can kick your butt with the elements?"

"Because I care about you," he said. "You were starting to care about me, weren't you? I mean before all of this happened to me."

"Yes." On one hand, right about then was an excellent opportunity for me to mention the little fact that Erik and I were supposed to be back together. And maybe even say something about Heath. (Or maybe not.) On the other hand, I was trying to somehow fix the kid's humanity, or lack thereof, and it probably wouldn't help for me to be all: Hey, I'll sleep with you and act like I care about you, but I kinda have a boyfriend. Or two. And besides all that, I needed to start being honest with myself. Erik had seemed so perfect for me; he's who everyone thought I should be with. Then why have I always liked other guys, too, and that's even before he started acting all insanely possessive? It wasn't just Heath I'd been drawn to, but Loren and then Stark. The only thing I could think was that something must be missing with Erik, or else I was just turning into a nasty skank. I mean, really. I didn't feel like a nasty skank. I felt like a girl who liked more than one guy.

He shifted on the bed beside me and I tried not to jump when I felt his arm lift up. "Come on over here. You can put your head on my chest and go to sleep. I'll keep you safe. I promise."

I pushed the Erik problem from my mind, and figuring I might as well--I mean, I was already in nX A4 bed with the kid--I slid over. He put his arm around me and I tried to relax against his side with my head kinda awkwardly resting on his chest. I kept wondering if he was comfortable. Was I too heavy? Was I too close to him? Not close enough?

Then his hand lifted and found my head. At first I thought he was going to move my head (because it was too heavy), or maybe even strangle me or whatnot. So it surprised me when he started to stroke my hair like I was a skittish horse.

"You have really pretty hair. Did I tell you that before I died, or did I just think it?"

"You must have just thought it," I said.

"I would tell you that you looked really hot today when I saw you naked, but that probably wouldn't be appropriate, being as we're in bed together but not doing anything."

"No," I stiffened, getting ready to pull out of his arms. "It wouldn't be appropriate."

His chest rumbled under my ear as he chuckled. "Relax, will ya?"

"Then don't talk about seeing me naked."