Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“Oh, Millie,” she said softly, her tone laced with venom. She laughed humorlessly under her breath.
“She doesn’t have anything to do with you,” I told her flatly, walking away.
“Bullshit,” she argued, following me. “It has everything to do with me.”
“It’s late,” I replied, kicking my shoes off.
I needed to stop engaging. Nothing good would come out of fighting with Reese. It’s not as if either of us could leave, not really. Even as she stared at me like she wished I’d fall off a cliff, I knew that the bond’s heat was starting to become uncomfortable. She hadn’t touched me for the entirety of dinner, and my own body had started to revolt over an hour before.
Reese stood silently and stared as I stripped down to my boxers and went into the bathroom. Maybe a little distance would help. I closed the door between us.
My stomach was in knots. Everything inside me rebelled at the thought of trying to explain to Reese what those years had been like. I didn’t even like to think about it, remembering the pain and the disassociation I’d gone through. The shit I’d seen and done.
I was holding on by a thread as I forced myself to lock those memories in the back of my mind where they belonged.
I took my time, but when I went back into the bedroom, Reese hadn’t moved.
“We can talk in the morning.”
“No,” she grit out.
“You’re acting like a spoiled brat.”
“What is wrong with you?” Reese asked, her voice breaking. “Why won’t you just tell me—”
“Because that part of my life doesn’t belong to you,” I roared, my patience gone. “You get everything else. Anything else.”
My chest felt like it was going to crack open. Between the memories that the conversation had brought to the surface and the pain in Reese’s eyes, I was fucking drowning.
“I thought we were…” She shook her head, her brow furrowed in confusion. “I thought we were getting closer. I thought—”
“What?” I barked.
“I tied myself to you,” she screamed back.
“No one forced you.”
Her mouth snapped shut. Then she let out a bark of hysterical laughter, her eyes wild. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right.”
“Can we just go to bed?” I asked calmly, even though my heart was thudding in my chest. I needed her closer. “It’s late, and I know that you can’t be comfortable.”
Reese huffed and shook out her hands at her sides. Her chest was flushed, and her hair was damp at the roots—I could see that the heat was at work—but she didn’t bend. Without another word she moved around me, making sure our bodies didn’t touch as she went into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.
It was nearly impossible to climb into bed when every instinct pushed me toward her, but I did it. I waited, listening while she ran the tub and climbed in. I lay there, wrestling with memories that I’d thought were long gone, in the silence. Eventually, the tub began to drain. A few minutes later, the sink turned on.
When Reese finally walked quietly out of the bathroom an hour later, neither of us spoke. She was completely silent as she turned off the bedroom light and climbed into bed and she never broke that silence as she scooted across it in the dark and laid down with her back pressed against my side.
She held herself completely stiff as I turned toward her and wrapped my arm around her waist. The heat under my skin cooled almost immediately, but there was no relief.
Reese didn’t relax until hours later when she finally fell into a fitful sleep.
My phone lit up the nightstand, but I didn’t move. I didn’t care which of my brothers my parents had called. I didn’t want to talk to any of them. It wasn’t as if a pep talk would fix whatever had just happened with me and Reese.
If I tried to look at the conversation we’d had before bed logically, I knew that I’d handled it badly, but I had no idea how I could’ve changed it. Reese was confused and angry, but it felt impossible to reassure her. Talking about it, acknowledging that it had ever happened, was torture.
Until that night, I hadn’t even spoken Millie’s name in seventy years.
I was still awake when the sun rose.
Chapter 13
Reese
I woke up with a heavy chest and burning eyes. It only took a moment to remember why.
Disbelief and fear held me captive on the bed as I stared at the ceiling of Beau’s room.
He’d had another mate.
I didn’t know where she was or what had happened, but he hadn’t denied it. She existed. I hadn’t even known that was possible. It couldn’t be possible. Everyone knew that Vampires only mated once.
My mind raced as I thought back over every interaction we’d had. Beau had been angry when we met. What had he said? No. Fuck, no.