Too quiet.
So I shifted, propping myself on one elbow enough to look down at her. “That’s not me saying I regret it.”
“I know.”
“Good. Because I’d do it again.”
Her mouth twitched faintly. “You say such romantic things.”
“I’m working with what I have.”
“Very organized menace of you.”
I brushed her hair back from her face, careful around the bruise at her neck. The color had deepened beneath her skin, blue and purple in the low light, and the sight of it pulled that cold thing back into my chest so fast I had to stop touching her for a second.
Bliss noticed because Bliss noticed everything when she was pretending not to.
“You’re doing it again,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“Come back.”
That wrecked me because she had spent all night handing me pieces of herself nobody else got, and now she was calling me back from the exact place those pieces sent me.
I lowered my forehead to her shoulder and breathed once. Twice. Then I lifted my head and looked at her again.
“I need to talk to the boys.”
Her eyes searched mine. “Your boys?”
“Yeah.”
She turned slightly in my arms. “About me?”
“About the situation.”
“Cade.”
“I’m not telling them what you told me.” The words came out sharper than I meant them to, but I needed her to understand that boundary was already locked. “That’s yours. No one gets it unless you hand it to them.”
Her face softened, and it almost hurt to look at.
“But they need to know I emasculated your crazy ex in front of his entire community,” I said. “I outed him, and I did it intentionally. The repercussions of that could be catastrophic.They need to know he’s not just some drunk asshole who got jealous at a party. They’re my support system. Your family is yours. Aura and Charm are yours. The boys are mine.”
She blinked slowly. “Did you just admit you have emotional support hockey players?”
“I will deny that in court.”
“Oh, absolutely not. I’m texting Briggs.”
“You’re not texting Briggs.”
“He needs to know he matters in a crisis.”
“Briggs knowing he has emotional value would be a disaster for everyone.”
A soft laugh slipped out of her, and I felt it against my chest.
