Page 71 of Unveiled

“Don’t speak, Ainsley,” he growls at me. That’s the second time he’s called me by my actual name instead of one of his nicknames, meaning he’s more angry than I realized. He always calls me his little one. “Don’t fucking speak.”

Doing what I’m told, I stay quiet. But, he said nothing about staying where I am, so I climb out of the bed and close the distance between us. Without a word, I wrap my arms around his middle and rest my head against his chest. He stiffens from my touch and doesn’t move to return the gesture, not that I expected him to. But, my touch always calms him. I was hoping it would have the same effect this time.

At least he doesn’t push me away. I don’t know what I’d do if he rejected me like that, not that I wouldn’t deserve it after how I treated him through the first half of this week.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, deciding to take my chance to speak, even if it makes him angrier. Those words are the only ones I need to speak right now. When he doesn’t reprimand me for speaking, I decide to keep going. “He’s my best friend, Cain. I just needed to talk to him.”

“He’s in love with you, Ainsley! He fucking admitted it, and you let him touch you,” he practically shouts as he pulls my arms from around him, finally rejecting the comfort of my touch. It stings more than I want to admit right now. He’s upset, and I’m the reason for that. I shouldn’t be surprised that a hug isn’t making it all better.

“It wasn’t like that,” I say, pleading with him to understand. My eyes meet his, tears welling in my eyes as he stares at me with what looks like hatred.

“If I had wrapped my arms around Christina while she explained to me why she was trying to take you away from me, just to comfort her, and told you ‘It wasn’t like that,’ would you believe me?”

This time, I choose to stay silent. It’s not fair of him to throw that at me. Ethan is my best friend, and we’ve been comforting each other like that since we were children. We’ve even shared a bed more times than I can count. Christina meant nothing to him. The situations are not the same.

He’s not being rational right now. He wants to hurt me as much as I hurt him, just so I know how it feels. Instead of responding to him, I walk around him toward the door. I don’t know where I plan to go, since this is my apartment and going to Ethan would only make this worse, but I don’t have to make that decision.

Before I can even get the door open, Cain is behind me, holding it shut. My teeth grind together painfully as I try to bite back my huff of anger.

“Are you getting angry, Ainsley?” Cain asks as he leans close enough for me to feel his breath on my ear. At this point, I think he’s using my name to make me mad. It’s working. “Good.”

With the last word, I can feel the movement of his lips brushing against my ear. His scent fills my nose, desperately trying to calm me down, but he’s been working to agitate me since I walked in here.

Not even a day has gone by since he brought me back to my normal life. If I’m not his prisoner, is this going to work? It’s all we’ve ever known. This is the first time he’s willingly let me go off on my own while trying to keep me.

“I’m not doing this,” I spit at him, still holding the doorknob in my hand. The second he lets go, I’m walking out of this room. “I was having a good night with my friends, after you took me away from them. I’d like to go back to that. Feel free to spend the night at your house.”

My words are meant to hurt him, but the thought of him actually walking out and leaving me alone for the night leaves a hole where my heart is supposed to be. I don’t want to sleep alone tonight. Even if we’re fighting, I’d still rather spend the night wrapped in his arms, listening to his heavy breathing beside me.

To my luck, or maybe misfortune, depending on how this turns out, Cain doesn’t leave me. Instead, he wraps his fingers tightly around my arm and pulls me until I’ve turned around to face him. Once he has me there, he pushes my back into the door and traps me against his body.

“I was having a shit day,” he informs me as he gently wraps his fingers around my chin and lifts it until I’m looking into his eyes. The gentle touch contradicts his harsh tone, leaving me unsure how to proceed. “First, I had to drop off my girl and trust someone else with her protection because she wants to be away from me. Then, I have to watch through the cameras while she lets another man touch her. After that, I couldn’t even punish her because I have a job to do, and men that rely on me, which was a shit show today. And here I am, finally able to punish her, and she’s acting like I’m the one in the wrong.”

He’s opening up to me, showing me that even he has bad days. I should ask him what went wrong today, at least to distract him. Maybe even to attempt to comfort him, but that’s not why he just told me that. He told me to make me feel bad, which I still don’t. I won’t regret the decision I made earlier. If it hadn’t happened today, it would have happened eventually.

“On second thought,” he muses as he releases my chin and takes a step back. “Maybe that’s exactly what I should do. Go home, sleep in my bed, and leave you here. You can sleep in your bed all alone, just like you want.”

His expression is dead serious, without a hint of a joke in his features.

He means it. He’ll leave me here and spend the entire night away from me.

“Cain -” I start, but he’s not done.

“Oh, and good luck with those pesky nightmares. I hope, for your sake, that they’re not too bad tonight.”

He turns away from me, ready to collect his belongings and probably climb out of the window. I’m sure that’s how he got in here without anyone noticing.

“Cain!” I practically shout. He doesn’t stop or acknowledge my outburst as he shoves his wallet into his back pocket and reaches for his phone. “Please don’t leave me.”

Panic is setting in at the thought of spending the night alone. No matter how mad I am at him, I need him. He keeps the nightmares from creeping in. He’s the only one that can keep me safe from my own memories, and even if they do creep into my mind at night, he’s the only one that knows how to comfort me.

Cain can’t leave me alone.

Finally, he pauses. He stops with his hand on his phone and doesn’t move to lift it off the nightstand. Slowly, he turns to face me. The first thing I notice is the small smirk lifting his lips on one side.

It was a test.

He wasn’t actually going to leave me.

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