Page 65 of Crimson Born

“You don’t need to understand everything, okay? Trust me when I say there are some things you’re better off not knowing for now.”

“I disagree.”

He stretched a hand down to me, offering to pull me up to my feet. “Well, you can disagree all you want to, but this conversation is closed. You wanted me to protect you, right? Then let me do my job and please... stop trying to make things harder than they already are.”

Harder than they are?

There it was again—a thinly veiled hint that Reecewasn’thappy with his “choice” to join the Bloodbound.

We trudged home side by side but worlds apart. The quiet between us cloaked a cacophony of arguments and questions screaming in my head. Reece hadn’t said it outright, but he’d hinted a couple of times now that his enlistment with the Bloodbound had something to do with keeping me safe.

At this point, only five days away from the ceremony, I was much more concerned withhissafety—with his freedom.

And with his future. A conversation we’d had the night of the bonfire had stayed in my mind, the one about settling for a good-enough life.

It seemed obvious to me that was what he was doing by joining the Bloodbound.

Now to convincehimof that before it was too late.

26

Beyond the Scope

Once we’d turned thirteen and had grown out of baby dolls and treehouses, Hannah and I used to spend a lot of time in my room—or hers—discussing her new favorite topic. Boys.

She’d had a lot of theories about what they liked, what they wanted. Some of them seemed pretty crazy to me, but one had stuck with me.

“If you kiss a boy, he’ll do anything you want him too,” she’d informed me.

Then she’d proceeded to prove her point by flirting with one boy or another in our village, finding an opportune moment for this magical kiss, then asking boy-of-the-moment to do her farm chores for her.

They always had.

It seemed to work pretty much the same for Heather. She always had some lovesick male vampire following her around, and since shedidkiss and tell, I had a good idea why.

There were no unsavory chores I wanted Reece to take over for me, but I did want him to talk to me, to tell me the truth about what was going on with him. Thewholetruth.

So as we arrived back at the Bastion and he walked me to my chambers, I formulated a plan.

We arrived at my door, and Reece opened it for me.

“I’ll see you tomor—”

“Come in please,” I said, cutting him off. “I need your help with something.”

Reece inhaled a long slow breath and let it out but said nothing. He stepped inside, and I closed the door behind us.

I turned to him. “I’m still cold. Would you build a fire in my fireplace please?”

His eyes narrowed in suspicion. Noticing the dark circles around them, I felt a little guilty.

It was almost morning. He had to have been exhausted after training for hours and then accompanying me on my long hike.

But I stomped on the guilt, compressing it, and proceeded with my plan.

This was my chance to make Reece admit he didn’t want a mate-less, mostly celibate life—and to put Hannah’s theory to the test for myself.

Seeing him shirtless in the cave—his smooth, touchable skin, his incredible stomach muscles—was not something I’d forget easily. The images were imprinted on my brain.

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