For fuck’s sake, I actually mean it.
When did she get this far under my skin?
She shakes her head. “We can’t. Not even in secret,” she whispers.
“Yes, we can,” I fire back.
She doesn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she shoves me aside and hops off the table. Then she reaches for her dress and pulls it over her body, covering herself as if she can put distance between us one piece at a time.
I bend to retrieve my discarded shorts and pull them on.
And when she finally looks at me again, she looks... fragile.
Vulnerable in a way that twists something tight in my chest.
This woman has me tied in knots.
I find myself carrying emotions I’ve gone twenty-eight years without ever feeling.
“If you knew the truth, you wouldn’t want this. Want me. So stop, because if I let this go on, the hatred at the end will only be worse, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to bear it,” she says quietly.
Fuck if I know what to make of the words coming out of her mouth.
She talks in riddles.
But I gather there’s some huge secret she’s desperate to keep buried, and she’s convinced that once I learn the truth, I’ll hate her.
Unlikely.
Nothing can make me hate her.
I’m turning into Milo fucking Markev with these trains of thought.
I suppose this is what happens when someone gets under your skin.
A fucking useless thing to feel.
A weakness, really.
“We’ll talk about this later,” I say, my jaw tight.
Not finished with this conversation.
Not by a bloody mile.
I lean in and claim her lips once more.
The kiss is brief. Then I turn to my locker and pull on my clothes.
“I’ll take you back to the academy.”
“You don’t have to,” she begins. “I came with Adelaide—”
“I’ll take you back,” I repeat, leaving no room for argument. “Reyes is with Isaak. She’ll be fine.”
She hesitates before giving a small nod, though the reluctance doesn’t entirely leave her face.
