“I’m watching you scrape me off you like shit from a shoe.”
She turns on me, hair flying wide, and her eyes hard. “You certainly can’t expect me to go to work with your semen inside me.”
Cum. The whole world sayscumexcept for the biochemist I married.
“Work? You can’t go to work today? And I expect you not to be disgusted by our orgasms.”
“Disgusted?” Her shoulders drop from her ears until she’s six inches shorter than normal. “And why can’t I go to work today?”
“Hmm. Let me see, the owner of the moving company knows where you work, his felon nephew knows when you come and go. We have the son of a serial killer who knows where we live, and my father showed yesterday and got a good look at you. He’s arrogant as fuck, and I hate him. I’m also wearing this.” I hold up my left hand where the black band sits. “Which reminds me, you should be wearing yours. And that’s not to mention those old bomb threats against Platt that we’ve never addressed.”
There’s barely enough wind in her lungs to repeat the words “bomb threats” as she sinks to the floor.
I know she doesn’t mean to say it aloud. Mostly because I don’t think she knows she has when she utters, “And I thought falling in love with you was the worst part of my life.”
I take four steps backward and out of the bathroom on autopilot, closing the door behind me and dressing with more efficiency than I typically possess.
I’m on my motorcycle after a single text to Cian.
Me: Need to clear my head. I’m going for a ride. Don’t let Lorien leave the house. Please.
I consider having some loud music screaming at me from my helmet. I consider something angsty and angry and violent.
But angsty, angry, and violent are warring in my head as I hit the road to find a twisty mountain road.
On one hand, Lorien is in love with me. I never expected it. I never sought it. I never knew I wanted it until I heard her say it.
And I do fucking want it.
Badly.
On the other hand, apparently loving me is the worst part of her life.
Love and loss… all in one sentence.
I never knew rejection could be so efficient at killing me.
Lorien
“What do you meanno?”
Cian Murphy stands a couple inches taller than Liam. He’s the boy next door instead of Liam’s gruff give-no-care attitude. He’s a golden retriever to my husband’s black cat nature.
My husband… I told him I was falling in love with him. And he bolted faster than a particle collider smashes atoms.
I’m tired. I’m sad. I’m drained. I’m scared. I was rejected hard after making myself vulnerable.
And the last person in the world I want to be mad at is Cian, even if he’s making it hard not to be.
“Just so you know, this isn’t my favorite. Sariah can tell you, I’m protective, but not in the not-trusting way. I don’t like being a hard ass. It’s not in my nature.”
“Then, please excuse me while I call a rideshare.”
“I can’t do that, Lorien.”
“You can’t stop me.” I try to keep my voice firm and even, leaving the anger out of it. I’m a grown woman with a job, not an unloved, unwanted person to be kept locked up.
“Please don’t make me. Stop you, that is. There’s a lot going on right now, and Liam wants you safe.”
