“What’s your problem?” he demanded.
“My problem?” I gasped in offence. “What’s your problem?”
He glanced nervously at the door, his jaw pulsing. “I’m not discussing this here.”
“Then where? Because you won’t answer my texts or calls. Is that it now? You’re done helping me because you couldn’t keep your hands off-”
“Quiet!” he boomed and I swear my hair swept back with the fierceness of his voice. “I will not discuss this here,” he repeated in a hiss.
“Well, I’m not giving you the option.” I strode toward him, lowering my voice to match his. “Drop the shit, sir.”
“Things will continue as normal,” he said in a low growl. “That’s all I have to say.”
“Oh is it?” I folded my arms to mirror him. “Well that’s not all I have to say. Do you think it’s okay to be all over me one second then drop me like a sack of shit the next? Maybe that mark on the back of your neck is starting to have some influence over you after all. Do you like being a Night Keeper, Nash, is that it?”
“Don’t you take that tone with me,” he snapped and I stepped forward into his personal space, leaning closer until all I could smell was pine and muscle.
“I’ve got the hint. I’m a big girl. You made a mistake. Clearly I made one too. So let’s forget about it and focus on what’s really important.” I hated saying that. I didn’t want to forget about it. I wanted to do it all over again but this time with even less clothes on and with about eight inches less space between us judging by the hard on he’d pressed against me. But I could see he was freaking out and I wasn’t going to push him on this. If he didn’t want to go there again, then fine. I could handle that. I’d handled far worse at this point.
“So?” I pushed and his eyes dipped to my mouth. My heart beat harder as his gaze lingered there, the desire in his dark blue eyes burning right into me.
“Back up,” he breathed, like he didn’t know what he might do if I remained there a moment longer. I wasn’t sure either, but I wanted to know.
I swallowed to try and dislodge the lump in my throat, but it only swelled. I was tempted by him in the most excruciating way. This off limits thing was getting old. Especially now we’d crossed that line. Couldn’t we just…cross it again?
Dammit, Tatum. No.
“Just text me when you’re ready to move on from this. I know you can’t risk your position here and jeopardise everything you’ve worked for. And I don’t want you to,” I whispered, claws gripping my heart as I accepted the weight of those words. We were doomed to fail before we’d even begun. Lusting for him had to stop. It was just so damn hard sometimes. It wasn’t even that he looked like a Viking warrior with muscles which made me pant and eyes that looked directly into my soul. It was that he’d become a true companion to me, someone I could rely on in my darkest moments. I didn’t want to lose that for anything. But I couldn’t deny how attractive that made him to me too.
He said nothing in response and my hope started to fracture. As hard as it was for me, I let my guard down and gave him the only thing I had left. My truth. “Please don’t leave me to face them alone.” I dropped my gaze to my feet, my heart squeezing like a fist in my chest. “I need you.”
“Tatum…” he sighed and I glanced up at him, finding an intensity in his eyes that cut through flesh and bone. “You’re not alone.”
Tears pinched my eyes as I held onto those words, needing them to be true. He said nothing more and neither did I. I hung in that parting moment between us for far too long, the energy crackling through the air making my skin tingle and my pulse race so fast I was about to lose my mind. Then I turned away and headed from the hall, my heart bloody and raw in my chest as I walked into the girls’ locker room and started stripping off for a shower.
I realised my crush on Monroe had grown roots that spread so far inside me that pulling them out would leave gaping wounds in the deepest recesses of my being. But I had to let him go. For his sake. For mine. We weren’t meant to be together as a couple. We were meant to fight this war side by side against the Night Keepers as warriors. And that’s how it had to stay.
“Did he whoop your ass?” Mila taunted as we dressed after our showers. “Spank it red?” She laughed and I summoned a breath of laughter, but my heart weighed too heavy to allow any more than that. “Oh shit, did he go full savage?”
“Yeah, he ripped some vital organs out and stomped on them,” I said through a vague smile.
We headed outside and said our goodbyes. It was the end of the school day and I envied Mila as she headed off with the football crowd, their light-hearted chatter calling back to me and making me crave the normalcy of their lives.
I sighed, walking back towards The Temple in the shade of the huge pines flanking the path. The lake lapped gently against the shore nearby and birds chirped and chattered in the trees. There weren’t many students heading this way as it was the opposite side of the lake to the accommodation. I sank into the quiet, wondering what it would have been like to live out my time here at Everlake without a pandemic, or the world hating me for it. Maybe
