Celeste reached over and gave Orion’s hand a squeeze. Then she looked to me. “Now, tell us, Harper. How are you liking Castle Hill?”
***
“That’s it?” I hissed, later in my room. “That’s all they’re going to say?They’ll get you accommodations but nothing else?”
Orion shrugged. “That’s how it is in my family.”
“But…aren’t you angry? Don’t you want to tell them about how hard it’s been and how hard you’ve worked and—”
“What for? To make them feel guilty? It won’t change the past. And it would only embarrass them in front of you. It’s out now. That’s all that matters.”
I shook my head, a hundred arguments at my lips.
“It’s out but not resolved. And what about Octavian’s outburst? And us?” I said, pacing. “They didn’t ask one question about how we met, or one question about…anything. Nothing of depth or—”
“That’s just not their way,” Orion said. He shrugged at my incredulous expression. “It just isn’t.”
“You’ve suffered a lot. Alone. Don’t you want to sit down and explain that? Make them understand how it’s been for you? You didn’t tell them about the spring concert, either.”
“I will,” he said. “Iwill,” he repeated, reading my dubious expression. “We still have time. I’ll tell them that it’s important and that I want them all to come.”
I shook my head. “It all seems so superficial. Like everything floats on the surface. Don’t you want to have a deeper or more meaningful relationship with them?”
Orion sighed, frustration creeping into his tone. “Because that’s so easy? That’s how they are, love. They’re not going to change. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”
“Maybe by telling them the truth?”
“Which is?”
I frowned. “Oh, I don’t know. That it’s totally sucked for you for the lastten years? That you nearly had a heart attack with the ADHD meds? That Callister is a dick to you because he has no idea—”
“And what good would that do aside from making them feel like shit?” He ran a hand through his curls. “Look, I appreciate you being on my side. I haven’t had that in a long time. But let me handle myfamily, okay?”
Every part of me wanted to push past Orion, march down the hall, find his parents, and scream at them for how my boyfriend had suffered. But he was right; it was none of my business. I couldn’tfixit the same way he couldn’t fix my mother.
With supreme effort, I nodded.
“Oooh, you hate that, don’t you?” Orion said, grinning and moving toward me.
“Don’t make jokes,” I said, letting him encircle me in his arms. “And yes, I hate it.”
“That’s because you’re fierce,” he said, kissing my forehead, my cheek, down to my mouth. “My warrior woman.”
“You’re just trying to seduce me out of being pissed off,” I breathed, my lips brushing his.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Is it working?”
“No.”
“Good,” he said gruffly. “Take it out on me…”
He kissed me, and of course I melted into him. Surrendered. My body suffused with that perfect, needy ache that only he could satisfy. I kissed him back. Hard, biting kisses, my hands grabbing at him, doing as he’d said, letting my fiery anger morph into heated want of him.
I didn’t know where else to put it.
Chapter 27Orion
I kissed Harper, silencing her words, deflecting like I always didbecause she was right about everything.
