Page 24 of Star-crossed Betas

“Will you come and speak to me outside for a minute?” I whisper into Cee's ear.

“We’re in the middle of dinner,” he replies through gritted teeth.

Great, he’s definitely pissed off.

“I need to speak to Connor privately; we’ll be back in a moment.”

“Phoenix, you will not be so rude as to get up in the middle of dinner,” my mother retorts as though we’re dining with royalty, and it’s not just a room of mostly my own relatives.

“Is that an order?” I ask, and she visibly blanches.

“Of course not.”

“Right. Okay then. We’ll be back in a moment.” I grab Cee by the arm and pull him out into the hallway. It’s still not private enough for wolf shifter hearing, so I tug him further down the hall into the downstairs guest bathroom.

Connor Kelly

My mind is still reeling as Phoenix pulls me into what appears to be a guest bathroom. What's with rich people and their overabundance of bathrooms? How posh do you have to be before the idea of sharing a porcelain throne becomes scandalous?

Anyway, I digress; back to the issue at hand.

Phoenix has an ex.

Either he omitted to tell me that when we were younger, or he dated her in the year we spent apart. I feel physically sick at the idea of him with someone else. In the year we were separated, Phoenix never stopped reaching out. Was I naive to think that meant he hadn’t moved on? It’s not likeIdidn’t try to. The first six months after we broke up, I was barely going through the motions, dragging myself to work and back, hardly seeing or speaking to anyone.

Was he with her then?

This was a mistake. This whole marriage is a mistake. I can’t protect my heart when he’s literallyeverywhere.

“Stop, please stop spiralling, and let me explain. I’m begging you.” Fee’s back is to the door, but he’s giving me space like he knows I’ll scratch if he comes too close.

“What’s to explain? We’re just havin’ dinner with your ex-girlfriend. Nothin’ weird about that. Out of interest, though, did you wait a whole forty-eight hours after we broke up before you got back out there?”

“What? No. She was never my girlfriend, and it was long before I’d ever even met you.”

“Oh, so you were just fuckin’ her and invitin’ her around for family dinners, then? Sounds an awful lot like a girlfriend, Phoenix,” I snap at him.

“I told you that when I was eighteen, I got really drunk at Jasper and Jade’s wedding, and I slept with Iris. My mum overheard me and Jas fighting over it. He was pissed off with me, and my mum asked me to go on a couple of dates with her so there wouldn’t be a rift between our packs.

“We went on no more than five dates, purely to get our families off our backs, and then we’ve hardly crossed paths since. We never even slept together again, I promise. I didn’t go into all the details with you back then, but I didn’t lie. We were never together. I don’t know why my mum made it sound as though we were.” He lets out a breath, and his big brown eyes plead with me to trust him.

I keep clenching my fists at my side, I have all the adrenaline from being ready to fight with him, but I believe him.

I think his mum is a total bitch—but Idobelieve him.

“You promise?” My voice comes out all weak and shaky. I hate how much I need the reassurance.

“I promise. Do you want to leave? We can leave. Weshouldleave,” he rambles on.

“No. We should stay.” I stalk towards him and grab his face between my palms, pulling him so his lips crash against mine. I kiss him aggressively, tugging on his full bottom lip with my teeth until it’s rosy and swollen. I mean for the kiss to be brief, but the taste of him is addictive. My body remembers precisely how good it feels, and my brain struggles to remind me why this is such a terrible idea. My fingers tug at his wavy brown hair, mussing it up, and I rub my lightly stubbled cheek along his jaw and neck.

When I eventually pull away, I’m panting for breath, and so is he. He shakes his head like he’s trying to get his brain back into gear.

“We should go back in there and finish dinner. Wouldn’t wanna be rude,” I say, not remotely hiding the smirk on my face. Phoenix smiles and rolls his eyes at me.

“You sure you don’t want to pee on me while you’re at it?” he asks.

“No. I think that’ll do,” I gesture at the mess I’ve made of his hair and rumpled shirt.

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