Page 43 of Unconditional

My eyebrows narrowed, something in my chest pinching tightly.“Birdie?”

“Nope.I didn’t want her to feel like she was replacing anyone.”

“You really think she’d feel that way?”

She was quiet for a moment, mulling it over.“No.I guess that was just the excuse I used.I was keeping Cara to myself.The hurt from her loss felt like my cross to bear.”

“And now?”

Her smile was small and so sweet it made my teeth hurt.“It just felt like it was time to get it out there.”

I heard what she didn’t say.The trust she was giving me with this secret part of her.This deeply personal pain that she’d kept hidden beneath the surface, tucked away in her past.It felt like a great responsibility to take something so intimate from her.A memory she’d held onto, a person she’d sheltered in her heart and shared with nobody else.

It was almost too overwhelming to bear.But I kissed her again, this time slower, deeper, and told myself to be grateful.

Misely

The early morning sun poking through the curtains of our hotel room woke me.The rays were warm on my cheek, but their heat didn’t nearly compare to the way my entire body scorched like it was on fire.

We had fallen asleep in our embrace, much more comfortable in the bed than we had been sleeping in the back of the van.Now Talon was wrapped tightly around my body, his large arm banding me around my middle.His calf was wound around mine, sandwiching them between his thighs like some weird Talon-Misely leg lasagna.

I groaned at my mental reference, internally cursing that Ineededcaffeine ASAP.In my sad, sad attempt at wriggling free, his arms tightened impossibly around me.The entire scene felt incredibly intimate, making my head spin.Talon was overwhelming me in every way, and fresh panic was beginning to set in.

Like his arms as he held me, Talon was a boa constrictor.Tightening around my body and my reluctant heart.Imposing.Suffocating.This thing between us wasn’t going anywhere, Iknewthat.The sex was hot and convenient and yeah, I’d told him my deepest, darkest secret that I’d never shared with anybody.

But if I let myself fall into the trap I was surely laying for myself, into old patterns best left in the past, I was going to get hurt.It was happening already, the edges around my heart splintering and cracking at the thought of what I faced at the end of this mess.Talon would walk away unscathed and I…would not.

Again, I attempted to put some space between us and again his arms tightened.

His stubble dug into my shoulder as he nestled into the crook of my neck.“Five more minutes.Let me hold you for five more minutes.Please.”

I couldn’t have fought it if I wanted to.My body melted into him of its own volition.Had Talon MacArthur saidplease?Maybe I’d heard him wrong, but I let myself have this one small win.Let myself enjoy the embrace because it was probably going to be my only chance.

Twisting in his arms, our chests pressed together.Talon’s eyes were closed, heavy lashes resting against the top of his cheeks.Relaxed as he was, I was able to catalog the freckles that decorated his skin, the tiny beauty mark just beneath his left eye, the crooked ridge of his nose.It had been the rugged masculinity of him before that had drawn me in.The sharp piercing gaze and the anger that simmered just beneath the surface.But I could see him more clearly now and that knowledge took my breath away.

He was beautiful.

thirty-one

Talon

Therewasnowayto drag the time out longer.I’d already stretched out my morning Non-Negotiables considerably, reading six chapters instead of two, but I didn’t retain a single word.All I could focus on was the woman in the bathroom, standing in front of the mirror with the door open while she got ready for the day.

My chest warmed when she called out to me, her voice giddy.“Oh my god, Talon!This bottle isplasticand it smells like flowers!This one might be better than the one I’ve used for years.”

The animosity that had been between us before felt like it had finally begun to recede.And damnit, I enjoyed her company.Knowing it was going to be coming to an end, and quickly, had dread knotting in my stomach.

My phone rang, the caller ID showing my sister’s name.I didn’t leave the room to take the call like I would’ve before.It didn’t matter—I’d already told Misely everything anyway.It wouldn’t make a difference.

I answered, distaste heavy in my tone.“What do you want, Bri?”

“To know where you’re at with your part in this, you asshole,” she snapped, barely leaving a second between my last word and hers.

My eyes squeezed shut tightly, taking a breath to calm my already rising temper.“I have already told you.This is the millionth time.”

“Yeah, yeah.Following a lead.Well, I think you’re full of shit.If you had anything at all, you would’ve been back by now or you would have given a real fucking update by now.”

“What the hell would you know?You just sit around in your little office and fuck with your ledgers and listen to Kyle bitch about us.It’s not like you’re ever out there actually getting your hands dirty.”

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