Page 58 of The Broken Wolf's Redemption

“That’s not fair.” Seren whipped around to the window. She put her hand up to her throat like she could physically stem the tide of sorrow.

“I know. I know it’s not. I’m not trying to play dirty, but at the same time, I’d do anything to see my brother happy. Even when he was secretly with Lila, he never changed. He was never… I don’t know. I don’t think she was fated for him. He loved her, but I think in the end they would have torn each other apart. She was immensely troubled, from what I can gather. Not the way Rome is either. He’s different. He can be kind and loving. He has his own logic, I’ll give him that. I know he’s done things and that he’s not the least bit sorry for them, but there’s more to him than that.”

“I know. I don’t know why I’m okay with that. I’m not.”

“But you could get past it?” That sounded far too hopeful.

She hated that she probably could. Not overlook it, but live with it.

You’re so far gone, and you know it. What’s the point in even fighting it?

“Rome asked me for just one thing other than the check, which I hope you won’t rip up. He wanted me to let you know that Castor and I are heading back. Rome is going to finish packing and cleaning and he’s leaving tomorrow morning. He wanted me to ask you if you’d consider having dinner with him tonight, at his condo. Yes, even after everything.”

“As goodbye.”

“I think, more as a hello.”

Her hand pressed into her throat so hard she nearly cut off her own oxygen. “I…”

“You most certainly don’t have to give me an answer. He said eight and that you know the way.”

Seren sucked in a breath. She swallowed it and another. She’d been torn open, and this wasn’t an easy way to put a patch on that wound. It wasn’t going to give her closure, going to Rome’s tonight. It wasn’t going to keep her from thinking about him and Waverly an annoying part of the day and night. It wasn’t going to give her the life she’d told herself she was done with and didn’t want. To be with Rome now, she’d have to give up so much of the life she’d carved out for herself with sheer determination.

It just wasn’t going to happen.

Rome had come close to breaking her once when they’d both decided to abandon all the rules of that contract. She’d turned herself inside out for him, disregarded all her own rules. She’d known better and she’d still slashed her own heart in half. She knew she couldn’t trust him, and she’d still gone ahead and offered herself to him.

It was more than just her body.

He knew that too. That’s why he couldn’t accept that gift.

He could have hurt her further, but there was a limit, even for him.

Even now, when she should absolutely say no, when she shouldn’t have even listened to anything Briar May had to say when she found out it was her and not a new client at all, she was willing to break the new rules she’d put in place to prevent herself from fucking up her life. Again. Again and again.

Why on earth was she even thinking about what she’d be doing at eight?

“Did you really want to get a tattoo? We could talk about that.” She picked up her tablet again and opened the app back to a fresh page. She turned and looked at Briar May, hopeful that she’d let her stop thinking about destroying her life and herself and that they could finally talk shop.

Briar May was a good woman. She’d pushed as far as she could push. She was smart about things like that. She bit down on her lower lip and nodded. “I really do want a tattoo. It would mean the world that it was you giving it to me.”

Seren knew, even as she made notes while Briar May talked, detailing her ideas and placement, that she was so screwed, she let out a sigh.

There was no real doubt about where she’d be at eight. She’d be at Rome’s, ready to go against all the rules and tear herself apart. It wouldn’t be closure. It would never be closure. It wasn’t about being sorry or about the way her body craved him and nothing else was even half a match for the burn of that incessant, exhausting ache.

It was about him. It was about her.

It wasn’t fated mates.

It was just a single, borrowed moment, an hour, a night, a spell that had been cast that she couldn’t undo. She might have been able to hold out and hold fast against Rome if he’d played fair and stuck to the rules, but he was using magic now. What chance did she stand against it?

Chapter 20

Rome

“You came.” The greeting managed to sound flat and hard, not dripping with filth.

Seren’s eyes widened on the doorstep of his condo. The nights arrived with more speed now, as their part of the world readied itself for winter. By eight, it had been dark for a few hours already. The chill of the night bit through his t-shirt, but seeing Seren again, an angel on the threshold of the hell that he was, made warmth pool low in his stomach. It was the first time since the last time he saw her that his chest didn’t feel like a mess of razorblades and hot metal.

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