Page 68 of Unveiled

“I should be back no later than ten o’clock,” he answers. I look at the clock, seeing that it’s only three o’clock. That’s seven more hours until I get to see him again.

It’s plenty of time for me to do what needs to be done, and maybe even enough time to spend time with the girls when they get back. But, I already know that each hour is going to drag until he finally comes back.

Cain parks in front of my apartment building before I’m ready for our drive to be over. Students are unpacking their cars from their week away, while others are meeting up with friends and driving away.

While I’m watching everyone else, Cain gets out of the car and comes around to my side to open the door for me. “Are you missing me already, little one?”

I snap out of my thoughts and come back to the here and now, realizing I’m about to say goodbye to him. With my eyes, I tell him just how much I don’t want to do this, but I don’t speak the words out loud. I shouldn’t be feeling like this after only a week of being with him, but it’s been so much more than a week.

It’s been months of trying to forget his voice, his touch, the way I feel when I’m around him. Now that I have all of that back, I don’t want to let go.

Cain grabs my suitcase out of the back and together we walk up the steps until we stop in front of my door. “I’m only a phone call away, Ainsley. Call me and I’ll come running, okay?”

I nod my head while straightening my spine. While I’m glad to have the option to call him, even just to hear his calming voice, I won’t do it. The first inkling he gets that I’m unhappy with being at school, he’ll pull me out without my consent. It wouldn’t matter if I still wanted to try, because he would leap at the opportunity to have me back at the house, especially if he thought it would make me happier.

Cain leans forward and plants a kiss against my forehead. “Behave, little one. Try not to get into too much trouble before I come back.”

Jonah comes up the stairs as Cain speaks, but neither of us pay him any attention. He does his job and stays back to survey our surroundings, making sure there’s not a threat in sight.

Cain leans down to press a kiss against my lips, a possessive kiss that shows anyone watching that I belong to him. It’s as if he knows what I have planned while he’s gone and he’s trying to leave his mark on me.

I return the kiss wholeheartedly, telling him without words that I’ll never belong to anyone else.

He pulls away too soon, leaving me wanting more, but it’s time for him to go. He has work to do, and so do I.

“I’ll see you soon, little one,” he promises. He opens up my apartment door for me and watches as I disappear inside. After pulling it closed, I hear him say, “I’m trusting you with her life. Take care of her.”

His words make me choke down tears. I’ll never fully understand what Cain is going through right now, knowing that giving me this choice could lead to me being taken again. He’s doing it to make me happy and trusting someone else with my safety.

As his footsteps pound down the steps, I push those thoughts out of my head and pull my phone out of my pocket.

ME: Come over. We need to talk.

As I stand before the door that shook from a pounding fist only a moment ago, I pull a deep, calming breath into my lungs. Though I’m the one that told him to come over, I’m still nervous. We’ve had our fights before, and we’ve overcome them, but it was never this bad.

Once my nerves are as calm as they’re going to get, I straighten my spine and pull the door open. His chin is tucked into his chest as he stares at the floor, either too afraid or too ashamed to look at me, looking like a dog with his tail tucked between his legs.

“Ethan,” I breathe, no longer nervous to see him. He’s my best friend, after all, regardless of a crush he may have on me. I grab his arm and pull him into the apartment, but before I close the door, Jonah makes eye contact with me. He raises an eyebrow, the meaning clear. “Keep this between us, okay? He doesn’t need to know.”

He releases a sigh as I push the door closed, but I know I can trust him with my little secret. After all, he’ll get in just as much trouble as I would for letting Ethan step into the apartment.

I drag Ethan back to my bedroom, wanting some privacy. The girls came home shortly after I did, so the apartment is full of the gleeful sounds of unpacking and dancing around rooms.

As soon as my bedroom door closes, Ethan takes his opportunity to defend himself. “Ains -”

I interrupt him, not wanting to hear excuses. “Is it true?”

The question has been nagging me, sticking in the back of my mind like a headache that refuses to go away. If it is, I don’t know what I’m going to do about it, but I can’t just let it go now that it’s been thrown out there.

Ethan collapses on my bed and folds his hands between his knees as his head hangs down, looking at the floor again. He doesn’t ask me to clarify what’s true. We’ve known each other long enough to read each other’s minds, which concerns me. If I really knew him, how did I miss something so big?

“Yes,” he answers sheepishly. Silence stretches between us as he raises his head and looks me directly in the eye. There’s no shame in his answer. No guilt, or regret, just a plea for me to listen to him.

“It started so slowly I didn’t even notice. You were always my best friend, the girl I could be myself around. And I knew you were off limits. I’d been watching you for him for years, but one day, I started seeing why. One day, you weren’t just the girl that played with me on the playground, you were this beautiful, intriguing woman that knew me better than anyone else. Last semester, when he decided it was time to take you, that’s when I realized you were more than my best friend.”

I keep my expression blank as I try to process his words. Here’s my best friend, sitting in front of me and professing his love for me with no shame or worry of rejection. He knows we’ll never be more than friends, yet he still has the courage to tell me all of this.

“You pushed me to be with him,” I remind him. Last semester, when he came to visit me in captivity, he was the reason I finally gave into Cain. He told me his story, told me it was okay to love him. If it weren’t for him, I could have stayed stubborn until Cain tired of me.

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