Page 113 of Love Me Brazen
She shakes her head.
Shit, I’m screwing this up. I reach for the doorframe above me and lean in. If anyone should understand another human’s need for space, it’s me. Yet I can’t seem to make myself turn around.
She props her chin on her knee. “I’m sorry I missed FaceTiming Greta. We had a weather delay. By the time we got back to Anchorage…”
I step into the room and settle on the floor across from her, my back against the dresser. It goes against what I’m craving—to hold her in my arms—but I think we’re going to have to work up to that. “We talked it out. She’s good.”
Meg doesn’t look at me. “How was the climb?”
“We had an adventure,” I say, going for brevity.
Her lips don’t even twitch. It’s like she’s forgotten how to smile, and it’s killing me.
“Is she with you tonight?” she asks.
“I dropped her at Kelly’s.”
Meg nods.
“Ready to tell me what’s going on?” I ask.
Tears well up in her eyes. She swipes them away and gazes out the window. “Why won’t you tell me about Trina?”
My mind goes blank. “Tell you…what, exactly?”
Her mouth tenses. “Were you two…together?”
"Whoa, Meg, hold up.” I flash my palms. “There’s nothing between me and Trina. I barely knew her.”
“I saw a picture of you two. I think it was from Annaleise’s party. You were close together, and the looks on your faces…”
Fuck.
“Who showed you this picture?” I realize immediately it’s the wrong question.
Meg sucks in a shaky breath. “I can’t do this again, Linden.”
I scrub down my face and refocus on fixing this disaster. I’ll deal with whomever shared this picture later. “Hear me out, please? It’s not at all what you think.”
“I’ve heard that before.”
I wince. She’s feeling so much pain right now. What I wouldn’t give to soften it. To take the load off her shoulders. To carry it so she doesn’t have to. Will the truth be enough?
“The night of the party, Trina wanted my help with something, but I turned her down.” I tap the back of my skull againstMeg’s dresser. Not reaching for her right now is torture. “Ever since Trina escaped Sons of Eden, she’s wanted to press charges against them. She’s tried to get others to join her.” I huff a slow breath and curl my fingers into the thick faux fur rug. “Others who were abused by Sons of Eden.”
Confusion clouds Meg’s eyes.
“Trina tried this once before, and I turned her down then, too.”
Her gaze snaps to mine. “You and Trina…were part of the same cult?”
I nod. “Different circumstances, different time frames, but yeah.”
Meg closes her eyes, her chest rising in a slow inhale, and then she sighs. “Before…outside the police station, you hinted something about this. Why keep it from me?”
I comb through the rug’s soft faux fur, but it just frustrates me—I want to be touching Meg instead. “Because I want it to stay in the past.”
“I’m sorry.”
