“S-should have c-checked the w-weather first, huh?” she asks, amusement warming her brown gaze as fat droplets of rain cling to long dark blonde lashes.
I let myself relax. Something can’t be wrong if she’s able to joke about this. Going out in torrential rain might be funny to her. It sure isn’t funny to me.
As I scoop her into my arms and unlock the front door using the keypad beside it, endless curses spill from my lips about how dangerous pneumonia can be. The curses continue as I track water up the stairs to my bedroom and through it to my bathroom.
I leave her sitting on the edge of the counter with a towel wrapped around her, turn to fill the bathtub with hot water when everything I’m doing—andnotdoing—hits me.
I squeeze my eyes shut and massage my suddenly pounding head.
What the fuck are you doing, Torin?
Juniper is finallyhere.
The thing you’ve wanted and were terrified would never happen is actually happening, and you haven’t stopped cursing her for going out in torrential rain long enough to find out if she’s actually okay.
I take a deep breath, release it, and turn around, bracing myself for an empty counter because Juniper slipped out of the bathroom while I was busy filling her bath so she wouldn’t die of pneumonia.
Yes, I know it’s unreasonable to think someone caught in the rain is going to die of pneumonia. But this is Juniper. I lost her before. I can’t lose her again.
With every muscle in my body tense, I turn around.
Juniper is sitting where I left her with a pale blue towel draped around her shoulders, shivering slightly, her eyes warm with amusement.
“Are you okay?” she asks. “You seem tense.”
“AmI…” I let out a bark of laughter. “I haven’t stopped cursing since I saw you.”
“Why did you?”
I try not to read too much into her amusement. She could be going into shock.
“Torin?”
I turn back to the sunken bath. “You’re freezing. I’ll run you a hot bath.”
She’s silent as I empty damn near half a box of Epsom salts in the bath and run the water, the only thing I have to make it enjoyable for her. But I feel her gaze warming my back. I prefer a hot shower to start my day, and a cold shower when I can’t get Juniper out of my head. Lately, all I seem to be having are cold showers, yet I still walk around with an erection more often than not.
“I prefer you when you curse,” she says in a voice so quiet I nearly miss it with the water filling the bathtub beside me.
Startled, I turn to look at her. “You do?”
She nods. “It’s better than when you’re tiptoeing around me, afraid of saying the wrong thing. The cursing feels more honest.”
My smile is devoid of humor. The thing pulling at my lips feels more like a grimace. “I’ve done the honest thing before. You didn’t like it, and neither did I. I’ll wait downstairs while you?—”
“I hated you,” she cuts in, meeting my eye with a directness she didn’t before.
When she first walked into the library at Haven Academy, she nearly turned around and walked right back out again.
This is not the same Juniper Harrington.
She teased and quipped and smiled and joked, drawing a smile to my lips and capturing my full attention with barely any effort. And in return for bringing me all that joy, I filled her life with pain and cynicism. With hate. I willneverforgive myself for doing this to her.
“I never hated anyone before,” she continues. “My parents never encouraged strong emotions in River and me. Outside of heat, I think they would have preferred for us to live quiet lives devoid of anything too loud or too bright.” Her lips twitch. “You can probably imagine their reaction when my dad found me nearly fucking one of his friends on his living room rug when I perfumed.”
My eyes widen, surprised by the sharp turn this conversation has taken.
Her gaze drifts over my right shoulder. “Is that for me?”
