He turned away from me, and I waited, giving him space.
I wanted to pick a fight. I wanted to do something—sayanything—so he’d open up to me. But I didn’t know how hard to push without him running, and I didn’t want to go too far.
“I told you that you needed to leave.” He shook his head, staring out the window and refusing to look at me. “I told you we’d deal with whatever happened.”
“What does thatmean, Max?” I rose from the bed. “You’re not honestly trying to claim that what Vivian wants you to do is on me, right?”
“That’s not what I said.” But something about the way he looked at me felt…different. “Quinn, just forget it.”
I froze on the carpet, just shy of reaching him.
“Max, I can respect it if you don’t want to talk to me about this. I understand if you’re hurt and angry with me because I didn’t tell you what had happened with them, but…” I walked toward the door to my room. “I do hope you’ll talk to someone about it. For you.”
I didn’t want to push him, but he made it sound like a hell of a lot more than a stupid rumor. He made it sound like thingsweren’t done between them, and like he had to go through with it.Unwrappingher gift.
Assuming that meant her legs, I also couldn’t sit there and pretendthattype of secret was one I could get past. Not as bile rose in my throat. Not as my hands shook, or my chest tightened at the thought.
After what we’d shared, I couldn’t pretend this was okay.
Or that it didn’t hurt, even if we weren’tofficiallytogether.
Whatever the hell that meant at this point.
Maybe, given that I had feelings for two people besides him, that made me a hypocrite. But I’d been honest with him about my feelings for Kingston and Landon from the beginning. Even with keeping what happened between me and them a secret, I’d been honest about how I felt about losing my virginity.
AndI’d been honest about how I felt about her.
I had to step back if he couldn’t share more.
Max turned around as I reached the door. “Wait. Where are you going?” His face fell. “Qu—Princess, stop. Don’t. Why does it have to be like that? Why can’t you let this go?”
“Why can’t you just talk to me?”
He scrubbed his face with his hands, shaking his head.
And I’d never seen him act like this. I wanted to give in, to have mercy on him, so whatever was tearing him up would stop.
But I couldn’t.
“It’s okay, Max. Whatever it is, I can see how hard this is for you, and I’m not going to push you to share with me.” A hint of relief flashed across his face before he realized that didn’t mean I’d stay. “But a secret like this? The thought of accepting that you might go through with it because you won’t talk to me? That’s really hard for me, too.”
His features hardened, his jaw working as he fought whatever he was facing in front of me. “Right. Because I’m notthem. If I was, you’d be just fine with secrets.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “If that’s what you think, then maybe you don’t know me as well as you thought.”
He glowered at the door to his room, like he wanted to leave. But before he could, or either of us could say anything else in the heat of the moment, I opened the door to my room.
It occurred to me I hadn’t asked him the biggest question.
Not outright.
“Are you going to do it?” I asked with my hand on the doorknob, gripping it tightly to stop the tremor in my fingers. “Are you going to let her…give you your gift?”
His silence echoed loudly between us, but when his features crumbled, his voice breaking as he stepped toward me, my heart ached as if he’d reached into my chest and pummeled it.
“Quinn, please, I?—”
“Oh.” My chin trembled, my whole body shaking as what he was telling me sank in. I forced it still, lifting my head higher and staring him right in the face. “So much for being the only one here who hasn’t hurt me, then. Huh?”
