My pulse calms as I take another deep breath.
“What did he say?”
“Nothing that matters.” Cull opens the door and hops out, making his way inside the small office.
Something is going on with Cullen, and it’s unlike him not to be open and honest. Hell, he preaches it to me enough. I just hope that whatever it is, it doesn’t drag him down. I’ve just barely broken the surface, and I don’t know if I’m strong enough to keep us both afloat.
Chapter fourteen
Hudson
Cullen is grounded.
Dr. and Mrs. Anderson went nuclear on him when he got home from the hospital, pissed that he went to Mason’s house. He’s not allowed to go anywhere for another week after already being locked down for one.
His parents have been gracious enough to still let me come over, although I have to sit and watch him complete a list of chores around the house. It’s part of his punishment. Which is what I’m doing right now as I sit on the sink in his parents’ bathroom as Cull scrubs the toilet with the bowl brush.
“This is such bullshit,” he grumbles. “I’ve done every bathroom in the house, everyone’s laundry, mowed the lawn—twice…” He shoves the brush back in its holder and flushes the toilet. He washes his hands, water droplets splashing against my thigh. “I still have to dust and vacuum downstairs, wash Mom’s car when she gets home and then start dinner.”
He stomps out of the bathroom, mumbling about the list of things he has to get done.
I slide off the counter, following him out of his parents’ bedroom and down to the living room. Cull plops down on the sofa, leaning his head back against the leather.
Getting him to open up about what went down with Mason has been nearly impossible. I try to bring it up whenever we talk, but he clams up, his shoulders going rigid and his face paling.
Whatever happened, it’s weighing on him.
Looks like he needs his mind taken off things.
I saunter over and straddle his lap, my arms coming up around his neck. I slowly grind against him, his dick stirring under the friction. His head stays reclined against the back of the couch, but his hands come up around my hips, his fingers brushing the skin beneath my shirt.
“What are you doing?”
I smirk and grind harder. “That feels like a dumb question.”
He sighs and slides me off his lap. “I’m not in the mood, Hud.”
Well, that’s a red flag if I ever saw one.
“Okay, if you don’t want to have sex, that’s fine, but at least talk to me. What the hell is going on with you?”
He closes his eyes, his hands coming up to rub his temples. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
He’s being evasive again, and it’s starting to piss me off. I’ve never understood his pushing me to talk more than I do at this moment. Why he was always so persistent in pulling my buried truths from me.
We already know I can be a stubborn shit, so it’s time for a taste of his own medicine.
“There is absolutely something to talk about. You had some sort of confrontation with Mason that led to you having to go to the hospital for a fucking panic attack.”
It comes out harsher than I mean it to, but it’s almost like he’s forgotten what secrets and lies have cost us. What they almost destroyed.
“That’s all there was. We had a confrontation, then I had a fucking weak moment and let myself spiral. I’m fine.”
My head rears back at his words, taking them personally. He’s always told me how strong I am and that my mental health wasn’t a weakness, but here he is professing the same garbage I used to tell myself.
Fuck. That.
“Do you think I’m weak?” I ask, the words a challenge. I’m so beyond frustrated with him, but I’m trying to remember that I’ve had my time to heal, and Cull has actively avoided dealing with his own trauma.
