Page 26 of Apex of the Curve

Chapter Seven

Aspen…

“Hm, not yet.” His arms tightened around me as I went to creep out of bed and I froze. “We still need to talk,” he murmured.

I swallowed hard. “T-talk about what?” I stammered.

“About why you would say what you did last night – about not wanting to be alive anymore.” His arms tightened again, almost imperceptibly, and I closed my eyes, cautiously relishing the contact, chastising myself for allowing it to feel so good… too good.

I couldn’t see his face, my back to his front, spooned firmly by his much larger frame. I was glad for that, burning with shame as I was.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said in the barest of whispers.

“Gotta talk to somebody, and I’m right here,” he said, and I closed my eyes.

“I shouldn’t have called.”

“I’m glad that you did. That I could be here for you.”

I was too, for that last part, but somehow in the light of day, I felt marginally stronger.

“Thank you,” I said, not really knowing what else to say that was the right thing to say beyond that.

“You’re welcome,” he said, and I didn’t know what to do.

Finally, after a long, somewhat tense silence, I said, “I have to go to work.”

“You sure you’re good?” he asked.

“No,” I said honestly. “But even though he’s trying to take it from me, work is one of the few stabilizing things I have left.”

He didn’t let me go, just froze a little behind me and I could almost feel his frown.

“Who’s trying to take what, now?” he asked and yep, the scowl I couldn’t see, I could definitely hear in his voice.

I sighed.

“My ex-husband,” I said softly. “I got papers in the mail; he wants half my business.”

Fenris grunted and let me go, his hand sliding from my midsection to rest atop my hip. “I’ll handle it,” he said firmly. I pushed myself up into a sitting position and looked back at him. He twisted, lying on his back and giving a stretch reminiscent of a large cat. I blinked and tried to keep my eyes off of his tattoos and that physique. His blue eyes searched mine carefully, and I swallowed hard.

“Charles isn’t a bad guy,” I whispered, and it felt strange to defend my ex-husband. Wrong somehow.

“I beg to differ, baby,” Fenris said softly. “He broke your heart and now he’s coming after the one thing keeping the pieces going. That makes him a shitty person.”

I swallowed hard, tears springing to my eyes. I swept my gaze off of Fenris and fixed it onto something nonsensical at the moment – a block of pattern on the covers that had slipped into our laps.

“He just wants me to talk to him,” I said and swallowed hard.

“You don’t have to,” he said. “And it’s the mark of a controlling, shitty human being that he’s trying to manipulate you into doing it.”

“What if I said I didn’t want you to do anything?” I asked softly.

He breathed in slow, in through his nose, nostrils flaring slightly, and out through his mouth.

“Then I won’t, but I won’t let you despair either. Not like this. Not anymore.”

“Why?” I asked softly.

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