Apparently, my libido has forgotten that not only has this man lied to me repeatedly, but he’s also my stepfather.
“I need some space.”
“No.”
“Rowan—”
“I said no, Hannah. You will be staying here until I see fit that you can leave.”
I open my mouth to respond, but what am I supposed to say to his blatant refusal?
“You can’t just say no,” I snap. “I’m an adult. I can do what I want when I want.”
“Not anymore.”
“Rowan,” I growl. “I have an apartment. I can’t break my lease. I have a job. I need to be in the city to meet a client on short notice. I have a life!”
“I’m putting your apartment on the market first thing tomorrow morning.”
I stare at him blankly for a second, repeating his words in my mind. “What did you just say?”
“I said I’m putting your apartment on the market in the morning. I bought it in order to give you a safe place to live until you could be ours, and now that time has come. There’s no reason to keep it.”
I press my eyes closed, warning off the tears that gather at the corners. Why do I have to be an angry crier? I mean, I’m kind of an everything crier, but angry is the most annoying.
No one takes you seriously when you start crying in the middle of yelling at them.
“This is too much,” I murmur, my chest tightening as a wave of panic crashes into me.
Rowan knew how much I hated living under my family’s thumb, how badly I wanted to make my own way in the world, and there he was in the background doing the same thing.
I don’t realize he’s moved until his arms are around me and my face is plastered to his bare chest.
“Breathe for me, sweetheart,” he murmurs against the top of my head.
I shove at him, trying to escape his hold, but the comfort he offers is too tempting, and I find myself leaning into his embrace.
Goddamn it. Why does it have to feel so good being in his arms?
My body melts into his, oblivious to all the reasons we should keep our distance. Even ignoring the fact that he’s my stepfather and that there’s no way we can make a relationship between the three of us work, he left me. He left me by myself. He made me think I was unwanted, the same way everyone else in my life has.
How am I ever supposed to trust him?
I don’t know how long we stand in the entryway, his arms holding me together while I fall apart on the inside, but eventually Rowan pulls back slightly, peering down at me.
“I think I know what you need, Little One. Do you trust me?”
“No,” I answer immediately, even when my heart begs me to tell the truth. That despite it all, I trust him with every part of me.
He chuckles but pulls me up the steps anyway.
His hand envelops mine, never allowing our connection to slip as he leads me past the door to the room he gave me to the one beside it.
Without hesitation, he tugs me through the door, and I notice the lump in the middle of the bed.
It only takes me a handful of seconds to realize this is Asher’s room. If it weren’t for the boxing bag hanging from the ceiling in the corner, it would be the wall of medals that tipped me off.
He had an impressive career, even if he rarely talks about it with me.
