The gulf between us feels enormous.
"What’s going on, Bodhi? I don’t get it." That's all I can manage.
He drags both hands through his hair, sending bits of sawdust floating to the floor. "I was coming back for you. Tomorrow morning. I was going to drive back to Chase's compound and ask you to come here."
After ignoring me since we escaped Kozlov?
"You left without even telling me where you were going. And you’ve been avoiding me since the cabin."
The pain I’ve been keeping trapped inside me threatens to break the dam, my emotions becoming more heightened the closer I get to him.
His hands clench and unclench at his sides. "When you told me to go..." He exhales. "It seemed like the right thing to do."
Liar. I can feel his guilt. He knows he did the wrong thing.
"The right thing would have been talking to me. Not abandoning me." Keeping my voice steady, even though my insides are churning, I lay it all out. "What you’re doing is not fair.”
He looks me dead in the eye, broken.
"You're right." No defence, not an excuse.
His easy agreement deflates a little of my anger, and I sigh, staring around at the rustic interior.
"So, what now? You're moving here without me, and we’re what, done? Over before it even started?"
Bodhi looks horrified. And angry.
"No. We are not done. I want you here with me." His tone is adamant, but when he sees my dubious expression, he starts pacing, energy crackling through his movements. He groans, digging his fingers into his thick hair.
The fight. The announcement that he’s taking control of the clan. The applause. They want him back.
"You're in charge now."
He nods. "I've been avoiding my duties far too long."
I stare at him, waiting for an explanation of where I fit into all of this, but there is none. The silence stretches until Bodhi suddenly stops pacing and is on me, kneeling before me and crowding me, focussing all his intense alpha-ness on me.
His gaze travels over my face before those brown eyes settle on mine, staring into my soul. "I was going to ask you to come here, to see it, to think about whether you could see yourself here." He breaks off. “But then I got caught up in being back. I’m sorry.”
“So that’s it?” No attempt to pitch this town to me. To sell being mated to the alpha. “Just take it or leave it?
“I am yours forever whether you want me or not.” Bodhi doesn’t break eye contact, doesn’t flinch. "I wanted to besomeone worthy of you first. Someone you can trust. Before I broached the subject ofthis."
I stare back, unwilling to give him the confirmation he needs, not until I know more, but the truth in his words loosens the knot of anxiety I've been carrying.
His eyes search my face. "You came all this way. At least stay and have a look around in daylight."
He stands, putting some distance between us. "I’ll stay at the guesthouse. Give you some time to think.”
Groaning in frustration, I feel like tugging on my hair. "So that's it? You're just going to leave me alone again?"
Confusion flickers across his face. He doesn’t know what to do.
"You need sleep, we both do. And you’re pissed off at me, rightly so. I’m trying to do this slowly."
I don’t want slow. I want what we had in Kozlov’s mansion. Passion. Fire.
“I need to see the real Bodhi. Spend time with him. That’s how I know whether this is the life I want.” I rise from the couch. “Unless you’ve moved on and you’re happier here without me. Then just put me out of my misery.”
