She gives me a hollow smile. “The only person I need protecting from isyou.”
I’ve taken bullets that hurt less.
“I gave you my body while you were calling someone elseyour fiancée. I almost gave you my heart, again, while you were what? Tasting wedding cakes? Picking out place settings? God, I’m so stupid.”
She shakes her head, sadly.
“The wedding means nothing!”
“It means something to me!” she yells back. “Who is it?”
“What?”
“Your fiancée. Who is she? What’s her name?”
I mentally cringe, knowing this is about to get so much worse. “Rachel.”
“Rachel.” Her face flickers with uncertainty, then, her expression curdles. “Please tell me you’re not talking aboutthatRachel. The one who mocked my dead mother. The one who kicked me while I was down. Tell me it’s not her.”
I remain quiet. There’s nothing to say.
“Did you sleep with her?”
Silence.
She recoils like I struck her. “Right. I’m on birth control, in case you were wondering.”
I wasn’t. I pulled her medical files when she first arrived. I know she’s clean and has an IUD.
“For fuck’s sake, Johnny! What if you had knocked me up? I wish I’d known all of this before I let you touch me, but no worries. Guess I’ll let everyone else know we need to get tested.”
She turns to walk out, but I grab her arm pulling her to face me.
“First of all, I’d be the happiest man on Earth if you were swollen with my baby.”
Her mouth falls open.
“Second, what do you mean byeveryone else?” I growl.
She glares. “Sean. Nik. Axel. I fucked all of them. Right after you.”
I snarl, crowding her until her back hits a bookcase. She tries to duck around me, but I grab her. Caging both her hands in one of mine, and wrapping my other hand around her neck. Her stare is defiant, but her body trembles.
“I’ve done what I had to. Not what I wanted to. And I never slept with Rachel without a condom. I never slept with anyone without using protection. Ever. Except for you.”
Tears slip down her cheeks. “That doesn’t make it better.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I agree. “But you don’t need to get tested. Your body is safe with me.”
“Nothing about you is safe,” she whispers. “Let me go.”
And this time, I do. Because if there’s any chance of getting her back, it won’t be with words. Not now. Not while she’s bleeding.
Especially when I’m the one who handed her the knife, and gave her the reason to use it.
Chapter 34
Aro
