Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 99917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99917 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
This is getting out of control. I have to do something.
“Please,” I try again, but my voice falters under the heat of their stares. “Stop acting like this.” Neither of them appears to hear me, or if they do, there is no acknowledgment. I might as well not be here at all.
Arson bares his teeth, grinding his hips up into me, eliciting a gasp from my lips.
“Protect her?” he spits. “I think you mean abandon. It might seem like a sacrifice to you, but I call it cowardice. You wanted her—you still fucking do—but instead of being man enough to claim her, you left her alone. You left her empty. I’m the one who picked up the pieces. I’m the one inside her now. And that, Brother, is what saving her looks like.”
Arson’s words lash the air, venom and possession dripping from every syllable. The sound of it coils tight inside me, winding around my ribs until I can’t breathe. My pulse hammers against my temples. Their voices, their hatred, crash over me like fists, pounding and pounding, until all I can hear is the thud of my own heartbeat and the ragged scrape of my breath.
Heat prickles behind my eyes. My nails dig crescents into my palms beneath the sheets. I want to scream, to rip their words out of the air, to make them both stop before I split apart between them.
“Enough!” The word tears out of me, sharp enough to slice the air.
In one quick move, I slam both hands into Arson’s chest. His snarl follows me as I wrench free, legs unsteady when my feet hit the floor. The blanket lies tangled at the edge of the bed. I seize it and wrap it tight around my shoulders, clutching it like a shield.
Heat scorches my skin, every nerve buzzing beneath the weight of their rage. “I cannot, and I will not be a part of this.” The words tear out of me, raw and shaking. “I will not allow you both to drag me into your war against each other.”
Arson’s jaw flexes, a retort ready, but I cut him off with a sharp slice of my hand.
“No, shut your mouth. I’m talking. Both of you have said plenty, but you know what neither of you has asked?” I don’t give either of them a chance to respond, and continue speaking. “What I wanted or how I feel? And I guess it makes sense, since, well, it might seem like this whole situation really has little to do with me, and more so to do with how you can use me against each other.” My chest heaves, the blanket slipping against my skin as I clutch it tighter. “And if that’s all I am to both of you—a way to wound each other—then maybe neither of you deserves me.”
For a moment, the room is silent. Arson bristles beside me, fury vibrating off him, but Aries is the one who breaks first. His mouth opens, then closes again, his jaw tight like he’s grinding down words he can’t afford to say.
When his gaze finally finds mine, it’s raw enough to strip me bare. “What you want matters,” he says hoarsely, the words spilling like they’ve been caged too long. “It has always mattered. You have always mattered.” He drags a hand over his face, torn open and struggling to piece himself back together. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… I came in to check on you and to figure out a plan. I want…I don’t know what I want right now—” His breath stutters, his voice cracking under the weight of it. “I can’t. I need space before I rip this room apart.”
He backs toward the door, eyes lingering on me for a heartbeat longer than I can stand, before he turns and walks out, slamming the door hard enough to rattle the walls.
Suddenly, the room feels split in half, with my heart caught in the fault line. There’s no way back, and there’s no lying to myself anymore. I want both of them, together, and it has to be together or nothing because I can’t choose.
I won’t choose.
Arson lets out a bitter laugh that’s low and jagged. “Let him slam doors and sulk in the dark. I’m the one still here, the one keeping you safe.” He rolls off the edge of the bed and gestures to the spot he was just in. “Now come lie back down and rest.”
I stare at him, incredulous. “You think I want to lie down and rest after what just happened?”
“Probably not,” he admits, dragging a hand through his hair, “but you need to.”
I shake my head, tightening the blanket around me. “No. What I need is for this feud between the two of you to end.”
His gaze cuts to me, sharp and warning, hazel eyes dark. “It’s not that easy, and you know it. One conversation isn’t going to fix us. Hell, years of therapy wouldn’t.”