Page 36 of Love Bites Extra Hard

Dark.

A lump lodged itself in my throat. “No one.”

“Avery,” he growled my name.

“I don’t talk about it.”

“You just did.”

“My sisters don’t even know. Idon’ttalk about it.” I pulled my wrist free from his grip, and padded down the stairs. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“You can talk to me.”

“I don’t know you. You don’t know me. And you don’t even like the idea of sleeping with me. Why would I tell you anything?”

He made a strangled noise. “Why the fuck would you think I don’t like the idea of sleeping with you.”

“You turned me down when I told you to take your pants off. Then left me in bed alone.”

“I’m being respectful.”

“Finger-fucking someone isn’trespectful. It’s hot, and it feels amazing, but it’s not respect.”

He made a sound of frustration. “Fine. We’re not talking about that. We’re talking about you thinking I don’t want to sleep with you.”

“I mentioned dragons being possessive of people they’re sleeping with. You pointed out that we aren’t sleeping together. That seemed like a pretty clear statement.”

“I was trying to say that’s not why I’m possessive of you. Not that I don’t want to sleep with you. Obviously, I do.”

“Then why are you possessive of me?”

He grunted. “It’s… complicated.”

It took him a minute to come up with the right word, but the right word didn’t impress me. “Does it have something to do with Jamie? Stella said it might.”

He didn’t answer right away.

I must’ve guessed correctly.

“Stella told me you only slept together once, and it wasn’t good. Did you have feelings for her anyway?”

“No.”

I eyed him, waiting for more of an explanation.

He finally admitted, “We were like siblings. I was almost as close with her as I was with Stella. Everyone kept telling us we had chemistry, but neither of us had ever felt it. A few decades back, Kai sent us a few bottles of fae wine after I helped him deal with a mess in his wing of the Manor, so we all broke themopen together. Our friend group. There were eight of us. The wine hit hard, and everyone paired off. They were fucking in the bathroom. Under a blanket on a couch a few yards away from us. In a closet.”

Oh.

Wow.

“Jamie and I were just as drunk as the rest of them. She asked if I wanted to try it, to see if they were right about the chemistry. I agreed, and we went to the bedroom. She took her clothes off and touched me, but I couldn’t even get it up.” He shook his head, grimacing. Almost looking disgusted. “She obviously wasn’t turned on either. We laughed it off and decided never to speak of it again, but some of our friends were done hooking up when we got back out to the couch. They saw us come out together, and we told them we did the deed.”

“Damn.”

“We solidified ourselves as siblings after that. And no, I don’t see you the way I saw her. Obviously. But regardless, I don’t want any woman near the fucker in that cage.”

I took his arm, wrapping my hand around his bicep. He glanced over at me, surprised by the contact.

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