Page 213 of Under an Endless Moon

She choked out a sound of disbelief. “But it’s fine for you to come to my room whenever it’s convenient for you?”

He flew to his feet, so tall and imposing she sucked in a shattered breath.

Anguish contorted his face. “No,” he hissed quietly, the sound a mere reverberation. “It’s not okay for me to come to your room, Raven. Think you know that.”

“How can you say that?”

“Because it’s not my place.”

Hollow laughter curled up her throat, and she blinked as she stared at him. Trying to understand why he was doing this. What would have changed. “It is your place, Otto. It is your place because you’re the only one who’s ever made me feel safe. The only one who gives me peace. The only one I want coming into my room.”

His head barely shook. “No.”

She barreled right through the resistance. “Otto, I want you?—”

“No.” It whipped off his tongue, a sharp, bitter blade.

It pierced her.

An arrow driven right through.

Then he sighed and stepped forward, and he pulled her into his arms. He was hot. Burning up. He ran his fingers through her hair as he pressed her cheek to his chest. “Please don’t say it, Raven. Please don’t say it. Because I love you. I do. So fuckin’ much.”

The air held, time slipping away between them, his breath shaky before he cast the final blow. “But not like that. Not the way that you’re thinking. I think you got confused along the way. Turned this into something it’s not.”

Confused?

She choked around the statement. She wasn’t confused. She knew. She knew exactly what glowed inside her.

“Otto…” She blinked against the moisture that gathered in her eyes, and he hauled her closer, his lips murmuring at the crown of her head. “You’re amazing, Raven. Beautiful and strong and courageous. Hold onto that. Keep it close. And I know you’re going to find everything in this world you want. Everything you deserve.”

It’s you. It’s you.

But she couldn’t say it.

The rejection he’d cast splintered through her like a thousand fiery darts.

Then he completely finished off. A fatal blow that speared through her heart. “And I’ll be right here, at your side, cheering my baby sister on every step of the way.”

Baby sister.

Baby sister.

Numbly, she backed away, doing her best to staunch the tears that brimmed in her eyes as she turned and fled.

She didn’t let them fall until she fell face down on top of her bed.

“Haddie, please don’t give into him.” Raven nearly begged it where she sat in the front passenger-seat of Haddie’s car.

Haddie cut her a glance as they traveled beneath the streetlamps that glinted above them as they headed toward the house party where Gideon was waiting for her.

“He said he was sorry. Really sorry.”

Worry churned in Raven’s guts, and she blinked out the windshield at the glittering clubs and bars they passed.

“And it’s Hollywood. Like, seriously, this is going to be so much fun.” Haddie reached out and squeezed Raven’s knee.

Raven couldn’t find any excitement. There was only dread. Something deep and dark that lurked in the recesses of her mind.

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