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“I think you’ll find that I can keep you from doing that.” He tries to soften his voice to take the edge out of what he’s telling me. Tries to wrap his arms around me. “Jackson knows not to let you leave the apartment without me. The security downstairs know not to let you leave the building.”
“Are you serious?” That’s ridiculous. I push him away. He’d told me as much but then we’d fallen into a comfortable place with each other. Even when we weren’t talking I never thought he’d truly stop me if I tried to leave.
“Yeah, baby.” He lets his arms fall and slap his thigh. “I’ll take you anywhere else you want to go. I’ll take you to watch the show at Mojito Bar. I’ll take you to dinner and dancing. I’ll take you to France for a croissant and the view from the Eifel Tower if that’s what you want. But Narnia is not negotiable. It’ll do more harm than good.”
“You’d take me to France?”
“Anywhere.” He tips my chin and kisses my mouth. “Except Narnia.”
“This isn’t protecting me,” I say. “You’re doing this for you.”
“You were seriously hurt, Ivy. You almost died. Someone hurt you, but you don’t remember, so there’s not a fucking thing we can do about it.” His voice grows louder. “Except make sure they don’t get another chance. If that makes me the asshole then so be it.”
The argument is over. It doesn’t matter to him how huffy I get. He won’t change his mind. He can’t because he’s convinced himself he’s protecting me.
“I want to sleep alone,” I whisper, my chest hurting because I get that it is hard for him, but I needed him to be on my side. I needed him to trust that I can handle it.
“I understand,” he says and closes the door behind him.
I sink down on the end of the bed. If he understood me at all he wouldn’t be trying to keep me from finding my feet. Even if that means letting me go to Narnia alone. It’s why I will never go back to Nicole’s. It’s why her threats to leave me homeless and penniless weren’t enough to keep me under her roof.
And the fact that Rogue doesn’t understand this means I can’t give him my heart.
Chapter Twenty
Ivy
There’sablackboxnext to my coffee cup this morning.
It’s a rectangular carton with an image of a phone on it. A special edition in a purple-blue holographic foil.
He bought me a phone? After a week of silently refusing to let me have one.
Sipping my caramel macchiato, I tug at the blue ribbon wrapped around the box until the bow comes loose. I lift the lid. The screen is large and shiny and fingerprint free as I take the device out of the box. The casing changes from a glossy pale purple all the way through to blue depending on the angle I hold it. Silver shimmers wink in the light.
It might be the most adorable device I have ever seen. Except that it’s his way of telling me I can have anything I want as long as I agree not to go to Narnia.
I power it up to find it has a fully charged battery and it’s already set up, though he only put his family members and Adira in the contacts. I still need to sign into my Google calendar. There are probably a whole host of other apps I’ll need to login to at some point too.
A picture of Rogue and I fills the home screen. From the background it looks like we might be at Rebel’s. We’re snuggled up under a blanket and we look so cute together. Intimate.
We were happy. I have no doubt about that. Even if it feels like it happened to someone else. For a few days there I believed it could still be our reality.
“You like it?” he asks as he comes into the room. He’s wearing a button down and he’s in the middle of rolling one sleeve up to his elbow. Then he starts on the other one, revealing sweet ink and muscle.
My mouth waters. He’s sexy. There’s no doubt about that. “Huh?”
“The phone?” Rogue watches me with the device that fits my hand just right. A knowing grin breaks across his face and makes his chest puff.
I like the phone. I just don’t like the price tag. I don’t like that he thinks he can change my mind with a pretty bauble. Or get me to do what he wants by bribing me with material things. If I’d wanted that kind of treatment I would have left the hospital with Nicole.
“I know you’re unhappy with me.” His expression turns forlorn. It’s clear he hates that we’re at odds again. Even if he isn’t willing to budge. “But I ordered this a week ago, and it finally arrived this morning.”
“So you didn’t just give it to me so I’d change my mind?” I like the phone and I appreciate that he bought it for me. But I’m not giving up on Narnia if that is what he’s hoping will happen.
“The phone has nothing to do with Narnia.” He crosses his arms over his chest and rests his ass against the edge of the cupboards. He spreads his legs in that big dick way only real men can manage. “You asked for it. I got you one. The timing sucks, that’s all.”
“I like this photo.” I show him the screen although he would be the one who put it on there so he already knows what the image is. “Is it at Rebel and Summer’s?”
