Page 64 of Undone

“You were supposed to be mine.”

“If you can’t share me, then I never will be. Ford has been there for me during all the years you weren’t. I will not kick him to the curb simply because that’s what you want. And since you insist we head down this path again, I will remind you, you could’ve stayed,” she said softly.

“No, I couldn’t have. I needed to get out of this town. It felt like I was suffocating, and it would’ve held me back. I needed more.”

“More,” she murmured.

“Yes, an education, to see the world, to discover?—”

“More than me.”

“I knew I was different, so I needed to figure out who I was and not rely on who everyone expected me to be.”

“You found yourself.”

“It took a while.”

“I found myself while living here,” she countered. “You might’ve too if you had given it a chance.”

“It wasn’t a chance I wanted to take.” When she thought he would explain that remark further, he instead asked, “Was Hart into what you’re into?”

“No.”

“When did you discover it?”

“After Ford and I became friends.”

He pulled away and barked, “Friends?”

“Yes, friends. We were friends first. Then after Kyle’s accident, Ford looked after me. He always made sure I was okay, that I was surviving.”

“Very convenient,” Dylan said dryly.

“It wasn’t like that. Our relationship developed slowly.”

“And now he beats your ass.”

Erin pinned her lips together and shook her head. “You’re simplifying something that isn’t so simple. And he does more than that.”

“Do you love him?”

Her head jerked back. “We’re lovers.”

“Do. You. Love. Him?” he prodded.

Chapter Seventeen

When Erin spun awayfrom him, he had his answer.

He might not like that answer—especially since it made his gut churn—but he had it. “Does he know?”

She stopped in front of Checkers’ stall and focused on the pinto Quarter Horse Dylan also rescued from the Lancaster kill pen. “I didn’t say I loved him.”

She glanced over her shoulder when he approached. “Erin, you didn’t have to. If you two love each other, I don’t want to be the third wheel in your relationship.” Why the hell did that hurt to say?

“You wouldn’t be.”

It didn’t go unnoticed how she didn’t deny that they loved each other, either. “You can’t know that. Do you really want to risk your relationship with him just so I can join you two for sex?” Changing the dynamic of any established relationship could lead to disaster.

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