Page 65 of Violet

I shrug. “Fans, that kind of shit. She’s nothing, a troublemaker.”

“Stephan, look at me.”

I lift my head, and the emotion swimming in her eyes has me in a chokehold. There’s pain there, buried down deep. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if it wasn’t for my career. And on the surface is a thick layer of indifference.

“Did you sleep with her?” she asks and wraps her arms around herself to fight off the chill of the late night.

I don’t know if I should answer. But lying… I don’t know if I can do that either. Not with Violet.

“There’s nothing between us.” I repeat that instead, settling for middle ground. “I made a mistake. One I’ll never make again.”

She is silent while she thinks over my words. Finally, she shakes her head. “It doesn’t matter. None of this is real anyway.”

And for some reason, those words sear into me and burn. She’s right, though. We made a deal to have a fake courtship. That’s it.

“Maybe we should just end this now,” she says. “Whatever this is.”

Wait, what?

I stand. “End it?”

“I don’t see any reason to keep the act going. It served its purpose. I’ve already gone on a few dates, met a couple of Alphas that are…amiable. Any of them would make a fine mate. Or there’s Mr. Stockton. He seems very interested in me, and Heath approves.”

I laugh. “That walking human sedative? You’re joking.”

But from the unamused expression on her face, she’s clearly not. “He’s a CEO. Handsome. Polite. Well-traveled…”

“And makes a tax seminar seem like fun. And let’s not forget that he’s old as fuck.”

“Mid-thirties isn’t old.”

I ignore that. “The only reason he’s even seen asdesirable this Season is because he’s loaded. The dude has no personality.”

“I can make conversation with anyone,” she says.

This is ridiculous. “But he’ll bore you to death. You don’t love him. You don’t?—”

“No one ever said anything about love, Stephan. This has always been about finding amatethat’s good for me and my family.”

“Don’t you want a love?”

“Every Omega wants to fall in love, but I gave up on that dream a long time ago,” she says and glances at the boardwalk in the distance.

Shit. She’s starting to sound like me.

“It may be time for us to just…let this go. You can do nothing with Alicia all you want, and I can take my brother’s advice and start taking other Alphas more seriously. We don’t have to even say two words to each other ever again.”

Heath’s a fucking bastard.

But I can’t blame him entirely. Violet’s pulling away, and it’s because of me.

“I don’t want Alicia,” I whisper.

“Well, whoever, then.” Irritation makes her voice rise. “Alicia, Jade, Brianna—I don’t care! What you do, who you do, is no concern of mine. I’m looking for a mate. Not a fantasy. Something real, not pretend.” Her hazel eyes seem to glow as her anger mounts. “I’m done, Stephan.”

She spins to leave, but before she can take a step, I snatch her by the wrist to stop her.

There it is again. The strange buzzing underneath my skin that happens whenever I touch her. The images of mesinking my teeth into her, biting her nipples, of her moaning underneath me as I rut away her virginity fills my head.

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