Her aunt didn’t expect him to return, and sheexpected Lexi to prepare for the next man who entered her life. Theidea of another man touching her the way Cole did made her stomachclench; she couldn’t even consider that possibility right now.
“He said he would come back, but I’m not sosure,” she admitted.
“Hmm,” Sahira muttered.
When Lexi grasped the bottle, she didn’trealize how close it was to the flames beneath Sahira’s pot. Sheyelped and pulled her hand away when the fire burnt her finger.
“Are you okay?” Sahira asked.
Lexi sucked on her burnt finger as she slidthe potion into her pocket. “I’m fine.”
If Cole returned, she would use it when shewas certain she wasn’t pregnant, but not now. She couldn’t bringherself to use it if there was a small chance she carried hischild. It would be difficult to raise a human, vampire, lycan, darkfae baby on her own, but she would do it.
“Thank you,” she said.
Sahira grunted again.
“I know he’s a dark fae, but….” Lexi’s gazeshifted to the window and the crow sitting in a tree across theway.
“But?” Sahira prompted.
“But I think he’s a good man.”
Sahira grunted again. Lexi kissed hercheek.
“I love you too, auntie,” she teased.
Sahira rolled her eyes. “Ass kisser.”
Lexi chuckled and folded the rest of thecheese into a napkin. “I’ll be in the stables.”
Sahira didn’t reply as Lexi made her way outthe door and toward the stables. She slipped inside and closed thedoor behind her. Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself beforeentering the feed room.
She lifted a couple of bags of feed andtossed them aside to expose the trapdoor beneath. The door blendedso seamlessly into the floor that anyone who didn’t know it wasthere would never see it even without the bags on top.
Removing the bottle from her pocket, Lexi hidit in one of the horse’s feed tubs, so she didn’t accidentallybreak it. Then she lifted the door and slipped into the shadowsbelow.
She closed the door behind her. Fromexperience, she knew the open space the moved bags created wouldn’tattract any attention as there were other spaces like it within thefeed room.
Lexi lifted the flashlight from the hookbelow the door and clicked it on before descending the steps. Thebeam played across the walls as she sped through the tunnels and inthe direction of where she last saw Orin.
She didn’t know if she expected him to bethere or not; if he was, she imagined he was prettypissedover her absence. Despite knowing that, she didn’t feel anyapprehension over encountering an irate dark fae down here. She’dhad enough of bossy, overbearing men, and she wasn’t about to letthis one run all over her again.
She was almost to the place where she lastsaw Orin when low, gravelly words issued from the shadows. “Wherethefuckhave you been?”
CHAPTER 55
Lexi sighed and turned to face Orin. The beam foundhim standing in the corner of two adjoining tunnels. His black eyesglimmered with malice as he studied her with a look that made thehair on her nape rise, but she didn’t back away from him.
“I was helping to save one ofyourbrothers,” she retorted.
Those words knocked some of the ire out ofhim, and he gaped at her before covering it up. Confronted with himagain, that niggling guilt tugged at her again.
She’d kept his presence here a secret fromCole. But she was sure Cole had plenty of secrets of his own, andit wasn’t like they were in a relationship and he’d told hereverything.
She tried to reassure herself with thisreasoning, but the guilt wouldn’t let go.
“You could have left,” she said. “Believe me,I would have preferred it if you did.”
