“Hold on a second,” Arwen says instead of hi. “Livy? I’ll meet you and Carson at the house in a minute. I need to take this.”
“Sounds good,” I hear Olivia respond, and it doesn’t escape my attention how happy and gentle her voice is. It’s completely different from the woman in that barn begging me to shoot her. Hell, it’s completely different from the woman who was having a panic attack at her father’s funeral. “Hey, Blade.”
“You left without saying goodbye, Arwen,” I grumble into the phone.
“I had to get home. Olivia is touring the Black Stone Ranch today.”
“Black Stone? Why on earth would Olivia be touring a ranch full of ex-military soldiers?”
“She’s going to move here.”
“Move there? What the fuck for?”
“It will be safer. Cross helped talk her into it. She’s been worrying more and more about Douglas. If he finds her, he will use whatever he can to hurt her and, in her eyes, that includes me. Plus, she’s tired of living her life in fear. She made a promise to Bear that she would survive and be happy. Olivia wants to keep that vow.”
“No offense, but the woman I saw at the funeral couldn’t function around one person—let alone an entire ranch of men.” Arwen goes quiet and doesn’t respond at all. It instantly puts me on alert. “Arwen? Are you there?”
“Yeah, sorry. I’m just thinking.”
“About what?” I ask.
“You sounded … jealous.”
“Jealous?” I ask with a short laugh.
“Yeah. Do you still have feelings for Olivia that you need to deal with, Blade?”
What the fuck? “Don’t do this, Arwen.”
“Do what? I just asked you a simple question. You sounded legitimately jealous when I mentioned Olivia moving to the ranch.”
“You’re acting crazy. Listen, if you’ve found you don’t want to be tied to an ex-con and a biker, that’s one thing. What you don’t need to do is throw this kind of bullshit up in my face,” I accuse her. If she was here in front of me, I’d spank her ass.
“I’m not throwing anything at you, Blade. You did sound jealous.”
“Jealousy is the last thing I’m feeling.”
“Then maybe you could tell me what it is you’re feeling, because I’m unsure of which direction to go here.”
“I tell you what direction to go. You get your ass back here and into my bed. If I’m anything, it’s pissed off because my woman left without waking me and giving me the chance to claim her again before she left.”
“Claim me?”
“Sweetheart,” I reply, dropping my voice down.
“You didn’t claim me, Blade.”
“Arwen, you felt me slide inside of you inch by inch. You felt me stretch you as you wrapped your arms and legs around me. You even said you felt how different things were with us. It was special. Are you going to deny it now just because the sun is up and you’re not in my arms, Arwen?”
“No,” she answers after a moment or two of silence. “I’m not going to deny it. You just need to realize …”
When she doesn’t speak again, I sigh. “Realize what, sweetheart?”
“This is not easy for me. I was afraid Olivia would be upset or hurt. Do you know I broke down on her?”
I feel myself tense. The mere thought of Olivia causing issues between us makes my blood run cold. I won’t allow her to be involved in this. “Arwen, baby, Olivia is the past. After what I went through, I can’t … I couldn’t have feelings for her anymore.”
“That’s kind of what she said, too,” she affirms.
