Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
“If I let you in,” he said after a long moment, “understand that this is up to her. I don’t give a single fuck if our families go to war for the next three generations, I will not stand by and let you try to force her to leave with you.”
“I wouldn’t do that. She’s been through enough,” I added. “I just want to apologize. I won’t try to talk her into shit. She wants to stay here with you, so be it.”
“Even though it won’t look good to your family?”
“Even though,” I agreed.
Nico took a step back, pulling the door open. “She’s taking a nap,” he said, waving toward the hallway where a door was cracked ever so slightly. “I’m right out here,” he added, tone holding a hint of a threat.
“Got it,” I said, nodding. “Thanks for giving me a chance,” I added before moving to the bedroom door, and pushing it open.
I didn’t fully close it, knowing Nico would be hovering, and not wanting him to think I was doing or saying anything that I wasn’t willing for him to hear.
“Hey, mouse,” I said as I moved in, flicking on the light as I toed out of my shoes, then made my way to the bed where she instinctively curled herself into a tighter ball.
Didn’t think I could feel more like a shithead.
That just proved me wrong.
“Know you probably don’t want to hear it,” I said, making my way toward the side of the bed she was curled toward. “But I gotta apologize to you,” I told her, climbing up on the bed. “I didn’t know, Lore. I had no fucking idea.”
“That you yelled at me?” she snapped back, voice muffled by the pillow her face was stuffed in.
Despite everything, I was proud of her for speaking up.
“I don’t think I realized I was yelling,” I admitted. “There was… something serious going on in that building. And I needed you not to be there. I used a work voice on you. I didn’t mean to be that harsh. Didn’t realize how off my tone was until I watched the security camera video. I didn’t mean to yell at you. I’m sorry about that. I don’t yell at women.”
“I just wanted to talk to you about something,” she said, voice small.
“I realize that now,” I agreed, tentatively reaching out, touching her hair. She stiffened for a second, but relaxed as my fingers started to gently rub her scalp. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Doesn’t matter now,” she said, voice cracking.
“Matters to me.”
“Yeah right,” she grumbled.
“I’m here,” I said.
“What?”
“I’m here with you,” I said. “Which means I had a good enough argument to give that guard dog of a big brother you got to have him let me in. Think maybe if he thought it was good enough, you can too?” I asked.
She said nothing to that, but I was going to go ahead and take her silence as agreement.
“I didn’t think you’d want me around, mouse. Until Cinna told me, I didn’t know you chose to marry me. I thought you were forced. And I figured, because of that, you wouldn’t want shit to do with me. I thought I was giving you freedom to do whatever you wanted without me breathing down your neck. Never thought that you’d actually want me around.”
“I did,” she said, that voice sounding so small and sad again. “But all you ever wanted was to sleep with me,” she added, and I winced, hoping that part wasn’t loud enough for her brother to overhear.
I slid down the bed, turning onto my side to face her, so our faces were close, even though she still had hers stuffed in the pillow.
I pitched my voice lower, definitely not wanting Nico to hear this part. “I’m not going to try to say you’re wrong about that. I did want to sleep with you. I still want to sleep with you. But it was wrong of me to make you feel like that’s all you were good for. That’s… that’s not fucking true.”
To that, I got a snort.
“I see now how you were trying, mouse,” I said. “And I just kept fucking missing it. I’m not trying to make excuses, but I’m not good at this shit.”
“What shit?” she asked, and I couldn’t help but let my lips curve up at the sound of her cursing. Guess I was rubbing off on her in some ways, it seemed.
“Relationships.”
“You have plenty of relationships,” she shot back. And, hey, that was a good argument. She’d been around the apartment during many parties. She’d seen me interacting with a ton of fucking people.
Of course she wanted to know why I couldn’t do the same with her.
“We had some good moments, right?” I asked. “There were times when we were getting along. Figure maybe that’s the only reason you stayed as long as you did.”