Page 74 of A Twisted Arrangement

“You need to do something about that, or it’ll get infected.”

He lifts a brow. “Worried about me now?”

Matthias kisses my forehead and gets off the bed, leaving me cold at the loss of his heat. “I’ll go. I’m sure you need space.”

I do. Of course I do. But why do I feel like crying as I watch him leave?

Chapter 35

Scarlet

Groaning,I bury my face into my pillow and punch the soft mattress.Are you freaking serious right now?I carved my name directly below his neck and collarbone. His neck! Then I proceeded to have one of the hottest experiences of my life that didn’t even include sex! I press my face deeper into the pillow. Maybe if I just suffocate myself now, I can forget all of this happened.

There’s a knock on the bedroom door. I can’t handle seeing Matthias right now. Actually, there’s no way he’d knock.

I flip around, lifting on my elbows.

“Scarlet, it’s me.” Oliver’s familiar tone comes through the door.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, and I’m still livid with him for lying to me all these years. The worst part is he made it hard for me to trust myself. There must have been signs along the way that he was feeding my every move to Matthias, and I was just too clueless to see it.

I collapse back on the bed. “Leave me alone.”

“It’s not the time, Scarlet. Get out here.”

It’s the raised pitch of his voice that has me getting up. In the seven years that I’ve known him, he’s been nothing but calm. A steady presence in my life.

I grab my robe from the hook and open the door a few inches. Oliver’s standing there, eyes darting in every direction.

“We need to go now for this to work.” A muscle ticks in his jaw, and his breaths come out too hard. Something’s not right here.

“Go where?”

His gaze snaps back to mine. “Anywhere you want so long it’s away from here. It’s my turn for surveillance of the front. If you want to leave, this is your only chance.”

There’s a weight crushing my chest, pushing the air from my lungs. After all the wanting to leave, I should be elated, but there’s this gnawing ache in my chest. I’d have to be crazy to stay. After all, Matthias has done all of this on his own terms, not giving me a single choice. I take a deep breath and push the voice at the back of my head that’s telling me I want to stay into the recesses of my mind.

Matthias will always be my first love, but the boy he was has grown into a man I could never have predicted. One that simultaneously makes my hair stand up on the back of my neck while sending shivers of anticipation down my spine.

I swallow hard as my emotions swirl around me. The way I felt last night, the power that went through me as I marked Matthias with my name, makes me want to stay by his side. It sparked something in me that I buried deep inside.

I can feel myself falling back in love with him with each second we spend together, but I’d been in love with him once, and he’d torn my heart out. I close my eyes, trying to hang on to that hurt and replay his words that cracked me open before.

“Don’t tell me you got the wrong idea?”

“Just because you helped me out for the last week doesn’t make us close.”

“Let me make it easy for you. I don’t want to see you or hear your voice. I don’t want to be in the same room as you.”

“You may have helped us, but you’re still a Laurent.”

I swallow hard as the pain crashes through me just as strong today. I believed that he loved me then. That we were fated to be together. I’d trusted him then. I can’t make the same mistake now.

“Let’s go.” Bracing myself, I step through the doorway. This is the right decision.

“Uh…are you not going to get dressed?” Oliver takes two giant steps back.

“Shit.” The blood drains from my face as I grab the front of my robe. Twisting on the spot, I rush to my dresser. That could have been bad. It’s like I’ve turned my brain completely off. I throw on a pair of black jeans and a T-shirt before glancing around the room to see if there’s anything else I need. The glint of the blade, tip still painted in red, sits on the nightstand. My hand hovers over the knife for several seconds. He didn’t take it. Why didn’t he take it?

---