Page 91 of Under an Endless Moon

Okay, so maybe we should have hashed outwhat happened last night. It had to be the reason my brain was blipping. Too many fucking memories of Raven in a position I should never see her in.

Or maybe I should have helped her pack her things this morning and got her the hell out of here because I obviously couldn’t act cool and controlled when my thoughts had skated in this direction.

The real problem was the possession that ripped through my nerves and fired into every molecule of my body when I thought of her experiencing it with some random guy.

I forced myself to sit, though my knee was bouncing a million miles a minute. Finally, I got myself together enough to look at her. Okay,getting myself togetherwas a stretch. What I was really doing was letting a piece of myself go.

Traipsing a direction that I couldn’t afford, but my mind had already spun there anyway, so what the fuck could it hurt?

“That’s what you like?” My throat nearly closed off around the question.

She still had her attention fully trained on the book, though I got the sense she wasn’t actually reading. She was just…staring at the page.

Creases dented the corners of her eyes, and her head barely shook as she muttered, “What do you mean, is this what I like? You know I like to read, and I like to read romance. I’ve never made that a secret.”

“Not the books.” I pointed at the words on the page. “Is that what you like men to do to you?”

Kept my voice as even as I could, but I still couldn’t stop the wild rage of possession that burned me through.

Charring.

Incinerating.

The way I wanted to beat down any motherfucker who’d been anywhere near that sweet ass.

Her frown deepened, and her breaths turned choppy as some kind of hurt and incredulity seeped into her demeanor.

“Just want to know, Raven.” Had no right to demand it. But there it was, out there like some kind of plea.

Raven suddenly whirled toward me, flailing her book around as she shouted, “Maybe I would, Otto. Maybe this is exactly what Iwould want a man to do to me if I ever got up the courage enough to let someoneactually freaking touch me.”

She gripped at her chest when she said the last.

Okay, it could hurt a lot.

So much.

It felt like a hot blade had been driven right through my stomach at the pain that poured out of her.

At the torment.

At the grief I could feel flood the room. Clearly in need of something that had remained out of reach.

Fuck.

I hadn’t known. I hadn’t known.

I’d been too wrapped up in wanting to gut every little prick who I’d thought had had the fucking honor of touching her to see what was really going on with her. Jealousy eating me alive any time she stepped out the door with another man.

And still, my voice went raw, needing her to actually confirm it.

“What are you sayin’, Raven?”

A tear slipped down her cheek. Fiery courage butted with the embarrassment that poured from her as she batted it away. “You know exactly what I’m saying, Otto. It’s just like it was then. I can’t let anyone touch me. I have a panic attack any time that I do.”

Her brow pinched in misery. “Every single one of them except for you.”

An arrow speared right through my middle because there was a goddamn plea weaved into her words.

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