I grin. “You will never get it out of me.”
“I haven’t worn those in a long time. Whose head did you pull this from?”
“Not a bloody chance, mate. You won’t get it from me. You look hot, though, so quit your bellyaching.”
“When the subject is as perfect as me, the object of your art can’t help but shine.”
I roll my eyes and snort, standing as I pretend to gag again. “I’m going to choke on that ego one day.”
“Doubtful. You’ve been living with it so far.”
“True,” I say, giving him a smile. “You never know, though. I could go along fine, and one day, bam.” I double over and clutch my throat, making choking sounds.
“You’d be heartbroken,” he winks. “There might even be a tear.”
“Hm. A tear? I don’t know; that might be stretching it.”
He shakes his head and stands. “Don’t even try it, Sampson. It’d break your heart and you know it. Just like losing you would churn my stomach and bleed my soul.”
I smile and walk over to him. “Why don’t you come over here and tell me about it? I could use some comfort.”
I’m letting the pain go for now because I’m serious about that—we need a little comfort to keep on going.
The Cat And The Blade Find An Understanding
DELILAH
Ilook up at my newest mate pleadingly. She’s determined to make this problem continue on and on, and I want it to stop. I’m exhausted—physically and emotionally—so I don’t have the wherewithal to fight her all night like we do at times. Talia has to let me steer this conversation to a place where we can talk it through without making herself the victim so I don’t get to say my piece.
It has to happen once, right? The odds are in my favor, aren’t they?
“Stop that,” I say softly. “Stop… please.” I suck in deep breaths as all of my muscles shriek for relief, and give in to moving down to the floor so I have enough room to sprawl out. At least I won’t have to hold myself up while we struggle through this.
“Why?” Talia asks, looking as if she’s going to flee now that I’m pressing her. “Why shouldn’t I blame myself? I’m the reason everything bad happens.”
I groan internally, wanting to cry. She hurt me badly, even if she didn’t mean to, and what happened after has done nothing but focus on her. Taurus went flying to save her when I didn’t let him talk me down, and Rafe fucked off because Talia and Taurus upset him. As for me? I’m trying to patch her up despite the shit bleeding into my clothes.
She hasn’t noticed or if she has, she’s ignoring it in favor of her self-pity.
Talia gives me a tired expression, still looking ready to bolt. If she does, I don’t know if I can stop her without magickal assistance. Her eyes are red with tears as she blinks at me, and I have to press my lips together so I don’t frown angrily back at her. Being this worn out is making my usual ability to push down my emotions and take care of someone else short circuit. It’s been a shit week full of assholes who won’t stop poking at open wounds and she knows it.
I’m the one who has this giant lake of black goo inside me. Why is she the one who gets consoled?
“I’m so sorry,” Talia finally whispers. “I ruined everything.”
I turn my head to look away as I give in and lie flat on my back. I have to stay still until I feel like I’ve rested my weary frame enough to do anything. Whether Talia sees it or not, I definitely made a tactical error in pushing that hard in the gym. “It’s not your fault; I know that.”
A little true and mostly not, but this bullshit has to end tonight; we have too many other enemies for me to keep this up.
“It is. Your magnanimous forgiveness won’t make me feel less guilty.”
I cringe; the bite in her words makes my heart ache. “Okay, but I don’t want you to torture yourself, even if it is your fault.”
“You were. Why shouldn’t I?”
Growling, I shake my head in frustration. “Taurus said I was hurting him by doing that; I wouldn’t ask him to leave just because I have an emotional problem.I told him I just needed to be where I wasn’t hurting him. I needed to be where I could?—”
“God forbid you share your problem with one of us.”
