“I’ve never seen it, but I knew my father was staying there. Hiscoat was there, and this journal, with my mom’s picture in it.” My lashes fluttered at the memory. “I’ve never really seen a good picture of her... she was so beautiful. In the picture, she was pregnant with me.” I wiped at my eyes, clearing my voice.
“I’m sorry, Brex.”
“Just strange looking at her, so full of joy, not having a clue what tragedy lay ahead.”
“You know it’s not your fault, right?”
“You know, people have told me that all my life.” I rubbed absently at my chest. “It doesn’t change how I feel. If it wasn’t for me...”
“Brex.”
“They could have had another child, many of me... but for my father, there was only one woman he ever loved. And he lost her.”
“Listen to me.” Ash pulled in his hands, clasping my jaw, turning my head to him. “There’s justoneyou. You realize how many lives you have already changed? Without you, the man I consider my brother wouldn’t be alive. I’ve known you for a short time, and I already can’t imagine my life with you not in it. And I can guarantee your parents would do it all over again, even for the briefest moment your mother had with you.”
Ash wiped at the tears now flowing down my cheeks; I swallowed the sobs to keep them inside. Seeing my mother opened all my old wounds. Guilt, anger, sorrow. I was pissed I never had even a single moment with her.
Ash’s thumbs stroked my cheeks, his touch calming me down. It was intimate and charged, his eyes locked on mine softly, his sexual energy coiling around me, our eyes connecting.
Not thinking, I tipped forward, my lips finding his. He responded, his mouth soft, warm, and... wrong.
I couldn’t deny a slight spark, but it felt empty.
Ash sensed it, too, his lips twisting playfully as he pulled back, not a shred of rejection or embarrassment.
“You can be mad at him right now, but it’s there. So deeply rooted, it vibrates and weaves through time and space.” His hands cupped my jaw harder. “You can’t run from it.”
“From what?”
He gave me a look. “I knew from the first night he brought you to me. I felt it deep in my bones. You two go beyond mated.”
My lids blinked, my mouth not able to answer, the truth of his words settling into my bones. I tried to jerk back, but Ash held onto my face.
“The link you two have... there’s no breaking it.”
“There has to be. It’s not fair to him... he doesn’t want it.” He was making the point clear right now. The thought of him and Rosie crunched my teeth together, acid rotting in my stomach.
“There is a lot Warwick says he doesn’t want... doesn’t make it true.”
“Idon’t want it.” I tried to fight back, but nothing was behind it.
“Believe me.” He placed his forehead against mine, a smile curving his lips. “If there wasn’t a Warwick or a bond between you two, I’d be all over this. Nothing would stop me.” He chuckled, his lips pressing into my skin between my brows. “And if you ever get sick of his cranky ass, I’m your guy, okay?”
I snorted, my head bouncing. Ash had a way to completely put me at ease.
“Anything else the book showed you?” He sat back on his heels, seamlessly turning us back to the issue. “I’m still confused why the book even showed you your father. I’m not getting the connection.”
“Something was written in his journal I saw on the table.” I bit into my bottom lip. “It said ‘I understand now.’”
Ash stilled. “Understand? What?”
“Didn’t say, but then I got another vision of my dad hiding something next to the fireplace.”
Ash’s eyes widened.
“You have no clue where this place is?”
“No.” My brain clicked with an idea as I jumped to my feet, already heading for the door. “But I know someone who might.”
