Page 2 of Mic Drop

Her chest rises and falls in a staccato rhythm. “Nothing.” She pauses a beat. “Everything.” A longer beat. “All of it.”

As she reaches for more shirts, I place my hand on top of her forearm and lower my voice. “Jenna.”

Beneath me, she goes stiff. “I won’t let you waylay me again.”

Again? “What are you talking about?”

“I can’t.” She yanks her arm free of my grip, dumping the rest of her clothes into the luggage.

All I can do is watch her leave me. I couldn’t stop Dad from leaving us way back when, and that was permanent. I couldn’t stop Lissa from throwing me over for Curtiss. I have to keep the woman I love with me now.

“I need you with me.”

“Bennett, I have to go home.” She tries to zip up one side of the suitcase, but it doesn’t close.

“I don't understand what’s going on.” My hands land on my hips.

“I have to leave,” she cries. Throwing her entire body onto the top of the suitcase, she struggles to zip it shut.

“You don’t have to go. I already told you—and the world, might I add—I didn’t get Lissa pregnant.” I pull her up and grab her by the shoulders. “After the way I was raised, do you think I want to have kids?”

Glazed eyes widen. “I suppose not.”

Too late, I realize my mistake. “Except with you. I could relax my stance if you were the mother.”

“Don’t bother.”

What the fuck are we doing? I let her go. “Stop this. What is going on?”

Her head snaps toward me. “It’s too much.”

I wasn’t too much for her an hour ago. She was defending me on the talk show. Spitting mad at Lissa. She’s loved being on tour with me, hasn’t she? “I’m the same man I was this morning when you woke up. Naked, in my arms, might I remind you.”

She shudders. “A mistake.”

“What do you mean? We’re not a mistake. I love you. You love me.”

“You make me forget everyone and everything I hold dear.” She bends and puts the suitcase on the floor, telescoping the handle.

“This makes no sense. We can do anything together.”

“Not this.”

“Talk to me. What happened?”

“Your mother,” she begins. “No. My mother?—”

I wait for her to continue, but she doesn’t. “What about them?”

Her eyes fill with tears. From pain? Frustration? Oh God, is she sorry she slept with me?

“Ma tried to call several times, but you distracted me.”

Her defeated tone, more than her words, bore into my soul. “I never told you not to talk with her.” She can’t be dumping me. Like Lissa did for a better prospect. Has another band member been sniffing around Jenna under my nose? Tris has been rather chummy.

“I let you.” A big fat tear rolls down her cheek.

I refuse to believe she’s faking her tears. Her orgasms were real too. “Are you leaving me?”

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