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His lips twitch. “And what else?”
“And then my other friend, Wyn, she drew a picture of me and a cute little baby and gave it to me during English lit and I literally started sobbing. In the middle of class. My teacher had to send me away.”
His frown comes back then. “Who’s —”
“And I feel her.” I speak over him because if history is any indication, he might do the same thing he did with my ballet teacher, give her a piece of his mind or blackmail her.
“What?”
“I mean, all the books say that I really can’t feel her right now because she’s only a collection of cells but I don’t care. I do.”
His gaze drops down to my flat stomach before he says, “Books can go fuck themselves.”
“You really shouldn’t curse, Reed.”
His wolf eyes flash again. “Cursing is the least of my crimes, remember?”
I swallow when he flicks his eyes over my face, my whole body actually. Looking me from top to bottom, getting my heartbeats up.
When he comes back to my face, the intense look in his eyes makes me clench my thighs together and ask, “Are we really doing this?”
“Fuck yeah.”
I bite my lip. “It’s going to be difficult.”
“I’m not afraid of difficult.”
I remember what Con said about our dad and the words slip out before I can stop them. “It’s a lot of responsibility.”
“I know.”
“You might not…”
“I might not what?”
I swallow again, crossing my dangling ankles, curling my toes. “You might not be able to have… fun and stuff. Like you used to.”
His eyes narrow. “Yeah, I don’t have fun anymore, remember? Not since I met this blonde ballerina and made her dance for me.”
You haunt me, Fae…
His raspy voice from that night floats across my brain and I suck in my belly. And the fact that he tried but he hasn’t been with anyone in the past two years.
Don’t think about that, Callie.
“My brothers –”
“I’m going to handle your fucking brothers.”
And then I blurt something else out and surprise him once again. “Where’s your bathroom?”
The sudden change of subject throws him. “Is it –”
I slide off the island and come down to my feet. “No, I’m fine.”
“Then what…”
I approach him and crane my neck up. “Because I need to know.”
He’s confused again and I realize that I haven’t ever seen him so out of his depth before. “Uh, down the hallway. Third door on the left.”
Smiling up at him, I grab his wrist, shocking him further. Shocking myself too.
I tug on his arm and maybe it’s the shock of things but he goes easily.
He comes with me where I take him as I walk down the hallway to the third door on the left. When I open it, Reed hits the switch and floods the most beautiful bathroom that I’ve ever seen with light. It’s all glass and white marble, polished and wintry, and yet when I step inside with bare feet, the floor is warm and cozy.
Sort of like him, isn’t it?
My gorgeous villain.
I let go of his hand and open the bathroom cabinet and thank God, what I want is right there.
The first aid kit.
I bring it out and set it on the marble sink and open the tap to hot water, adjusting the temperature of it.
“What are you doing?” he asks from behind me.
I look at him in the mirror, standing tall under the overhead light, looking beautiful even with the nasty bruises. “Something that I thought I’d never do again.”
“Yeah, what?”
“Cleaning your wounds.”
His wolf eyes sparkle with memories. That time when I was so eager to clean his wounds that I locked him inside the storage closet of the auditorium.
I never thought that I’d tend to him again. I never thought I’d want to.
But here I am.
“It’s fine.”
I knew he’d say that. “I know. It always is.”
“So —”
“And I know that my brother is fine too.”
“What?”
When the water is to my liking, I turn around and walk up to him. “You didn’t fight back, did you? When Ledger came for you last night.”
“Why don’t you ask him?”
“I’m asking you.”
“He’s fine. I spared him.”
“Like you did two years ago,” I say, studying his damaged face. “When he came for you for breaking my heart.”
The harsh lines of his face become harsher. “It wasn’t anything I didn’t deserve.”
“I know that too,” I whisper, swallowing. “But you didn’t deserve this.”
He scoffs. “I —”
“Because if you deserve to be punished for her.” I press my hand on my belly and as always, he glances down. “I deserve to be punished too. You didn’t do this alone.”
His chest contracts and I hear him breathe out. “I’m not interested in talking about who did what. And as I said, I’m fine.”
I feel the flutters under my palm. “And as I said, I know. But I’m doing this for later.”
