Page 39 of Love Me Fierce

“Vivian.”

The effect of that one word from his lips stops me in my tracks, all while my heartbeat taps lower and a sudden yearning spirals up through me.

It makes no sense, and yet it does. Maybe it’s my craving for safety, or maybe it’s because I haven’t felt anything like this before. It’s so much deeper than some fluttery urge or casual attraction. Whatever it is has hooked me right in the gut.

I stuff the emotions swirling loose inside me back where they came from with a hard swallow and turn around. “It’s the truth.”

The light dims in his eyes. “Okay.”

I swallow my frustration. He doesn’t believe me, or he just can’t figure out how to let it go. Even though I told him things I’ve never shared with anyone else in Finn River, it’s somehow not enough.

Don’t we all have secrets we don’t share? It doesn’t make us unworthy of trust.

“Let me have your phone,” he says.

“What for?”

“I’ll put in my number. In case you need to call me.”

I slide my hands into my back pockets. My phone is in the right one, but it takes me a moment to do what he’s asking because though his tone hasn’t changed, I’m reading it like a warning. That he thinks I might need him to come to my rescue.

That’s the last thing I want him for.

“You’re safe here,” Everett says in a soft voice. “But if you start to feel like you’re not, I want to know about it, okay?”

I drink in the warmth in his gaze. He’s looking at me like he cares. I also get the feeling he won’t take no for an answer, either.

How does he manage to be considerate and irritating at the same time?

I slip out my phone and unlock it. “Fine.”

He adds his number, then hands back my phone. “Let’s get these beds made.”

We work in silence, but the energy between us feels different now. Charged, almost electric. One would think that because of what I shared, it would feel calmer, the way clouds melt away after a storm, but it’s the opposite.

Like the storm between us is only building.

Chapter Twelve

EVERETT

I pushmyself extra hard the next morning on my pre-dawn run, but it doesn’t quell the frustration that kept me up most of the night.

Vivian’s ex is a cop?

That might explain why she turns into a pincushion around me.

She denied being hurt, but I saw right through that lie.

He just let you walk out of his life.

Why is that so hard to believe?

That she asked this so casually makes me want to punch something.

He didn’t fight for her. Or Mateo. He let them move across four states and doesn’t even call to check on them?

But that’s not the worst of it, somehow, Vivian thinks she’s notworthfighting for.

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