“Are you unhappy?” She crouches before me, worry in her eyes.
I purse my lips, trying to figure out the right thing to say. “No. I don’t think so. But things between Lucas and me aren’t exactly amazing, either.”
“What’s wrong?”
I swallow and look up at her. “He won’t sleep with me.”
Violet’s eyes go wide. “What?”
“Aside from a kiss on the forehead at night and his hand at my spine when we walk into rooms, he won’t touch me.” Heat climbs up my neck. “We share a bed, but he sleeps with his back to me. He takes cold showers and won’t touch me.”
She blinks twice. “So, seduce him.”
“Vi.”
“What, Sienna? He’s your mate. He marked you. You live together. Get on top of him! Problem solved. If I had been in your position, you would have said the exact same thing to me.”
My gaze drops to the rug again. “Yeah, I know. But I’m scared.” The words surprise me when they leave my mouth.
Violet’s expression changes to one of confusion. “Of what?”
“Of him saying no.” My voice is small. “Do you know how horrible it makes you feel when you’re constantly rejected by the one person who’s supposed to want you? It destroyed my self-confidence. I hate who I’ve become. I know he had to do whathe did. I understand that, but him rejecting my body now…I can’t ask him why because every time I open my mouth to ask, I remember the times he pushed me away, and the words get stuck in my throat.”
I press the heels of my hands against my eyes. “In the grand scheme of things, I know this sounds very self-obsessed. There are rogues. There is a curse. There is a witch we have to find and a black mark crawling up my neck, and I am sitting here whining about not getting laid. I know how it sounds.”
“Stop.” She sits down next to me, and her arm comes around my shoulders. “It doesn’t sound nearly as bad as you think.”
“But still, bad.”
“No, listen.” She pulls me a little closer. “The rogues and the curse are separate from this. They are real, and they are big, and we are going to deal with them. But this is also real. You went through hell with Lucas for a month, and your wolf is bruised from it. That he has decided not to touch you for whatever noble reason is just making it worse. You’re allowed to be hurt by it. You’re allowed to be scared because of it.”
I lean my head against her shoulder, and she takes a deep breath. “I understand your hesitation. But you have to understand that rejection exists outside the bond. You two are together now. He has no reason to turn you away. You need to ask him what his problem is. How he is with you otherwise?”
“He’s good to me,” I say, nodding. “He’s calling me Luna in front of the staff. I can feel his love for me through the bond. He hasn’t said it out loud in a while, but I can feel it. I just don’t understand why he doesn’t want me.”
“There is no way he doesn’t want you. The cold showers are evidence enough.”
We both laugh at that.
“Okay, fine,” she continues. “Don’t ask him. If he’s trying to put on some noble act, make him regret his decision. Just startshowing him what he is missing every night he sleeps with his back to you. You are a beautiful woman, Sienna. And lingerie is a woman’s best friend. Trust me, he’ll be drooling all over you.”
Another laugh escapes me.
“Darius is obsessed with me in lingerie. I can’t even wear a piece more than once because he tears it off me. He buys things for me himself. Everyone at the store knows him at this point.”
“Pervert,” I say with a smile.
“For me, he is.” Violet grins back at me. “That’s the fun of a mate bond. There’s no judgment. Nothing. We are one. You and Lucas will get through this, Sienna. The circumstances of your mating were not ideal, but now you’re together. Whatever hiccups there are, you’ll work through them.”
I nod, though I’m still not convinced.
“Either you wait for him to come to you,” she adds, her voice gentler, “or you go and get him. I have known you for a long time, and I have never seen you wait for anything that was yours.”
My throat closes up. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” She squeezes my hand. “I’ll take a quick shower, and then, I need coffee.”
Violet is ready in half an hour. Her mother comes out of her room at the same time, also freshly showered.
