Fake: The Scarab Beetle Series: #3 (The Academy) by C. L. Stone Page B

them. Not to be selfish about it, but they were all I had left.
    On top of that, I couldn’t choose between them. Getting close to them made it difficult. They each were incredible in their own way, and choosing one felt too much like I was hurting the others, so avoiding the issue was my way of dealing with it. In a small way, I was hoping they’d lose interest and leave me with only one option so I didn’t have to choose between them. “Maybe I shouldn’t do...I mean, maybe I need to not do this with anyone. Not from the group.”
    Axel stopped combing, dropping his hands and standing still in front of me. “Because you’re afraid we’ll fight and it’ll break up our group or for other reasons? Like you can’t decide?”
    Damn. I rolled my eyes, avoiding looking at him, hoping I could get away with some other lie, but another one didn’t wouldn’t come to mind. What other reason could there be? “Maybe it isn’t the right time to talk about this.” Or like we should probably never talk about it.
    He parted my hair, caught my chin and lifted my face until I met his dark eyes. The swell of a storm rose behind his gaze. “Not even something like this would be enough to break us,” he said. “And they’re not stupid. They’ll know. If you want to stay with us, we’ve all got to come out with how we feel about each other. There’s no way around it.”
    Panic seared me as much as the cold was seeping into my body, making me shake uncontrollably. Was he suggesting we should confront them all? I envisioned Raven lashing out, Brandon accusing me of being selfish, of the pain in Marc’s eyes. Or maybe if Axel turned them all off by telling them I couldn’t choose, and they didn’t want me after that, he could claim me for himself. Maybe that was the answer. If I couldn’t choose, the boys would choose for me.
    Did I want that? I never before had been unable to make a decision. I normally just bulldozed my way through relationships and then ended them on my terms.
    “I don’t know,” I said. I locked gazes with him. I was afraid to admit that I couldn’t make this decision, and I didn’t want him to think it was because he wasn’t good enough to single out. I just didn’t have an answer.
    The corner of his mouth dipped down. His eyes shifted from mine to move over my face, my hair, my cheeks, my lips, my ears. Was he scanning for another bug?
    “We need to figure this out,” he said. “Because I’m not going to avoid pursuing you for much longer. I want you.”
    My heart raced and tripped and raced again. I just stared back, naked, daring. My knees shook, maybe from the cold, but I was also on fire from head to foot at the gaze he leveled on me. I had resisted this long, but now I realized I was feeding the flames by avoiding him. My resistance was weakening, but I didn’t want him to know. I didn’t dare. I was scared he was wrong and the boys would feel betrayed.
    He was quiet for a while, but then his eyes narrowed. “I have to check the rest of your body,” he said. “Every part of you. I found three so far but I need to make sure there aren’t any more. These things can get into weird places. Do you trust me?”
    I swallowed and nodded. A rush of heat washed across me. His being able to change my thoughts and feelings so quickly left me so conflicted.
    He started from my neck, brushing the back of his hand down my body, along every crevice. Something told me this was more than an inspection. This was an examination. He would root out any more scars he thought were interesting. He’d check any tan line, any bump. He already admitted he was attracted to me and would learn every inch of my body.
    I was aroused that he was studying me.
    The back of his hand slid down between my breasts, and then he lifted each one, checking the undersides. He knelt lower, poking at my belly button.
    And then he was facing my crotch and I closed my eyes. His hands slid between my thighs and he parted them a