Page 27 of B Negative

He’d asked the one thing I couldn’t do.

“Not until we’ve talked some things out,” I whispered.

He gave me a single nod and opened his mouth to speak. I stopped him with a look. “First though, we both need showers.”

He smiled at me. “Agreed,” he said, picking me up and setting me on my feet. He swatted at my ass as he strode from the room. “I’ll meet you downstairs in twenty.”

I nodded and headed toward the mate suite bathroom. We’d chosen to shower separately without even talking about it. Apparently, we were both of the mindset that sharing bodily fluids was less intimate than sharing body wash.

I showered quickly and rinsed the sweat from my hair while at the same time wishing I was in Sunny’s mate suite. This shower was nice, great even. Hell, it was a thousand times better than the shower at my studio. Sunny’s, though? That room was decadence in marble tile. A modern day Roman bath.

Sunny.

I should text her back.

I wasn’t still mad. Not at her, at least. In fact, I sort of understood why she did it. She couldn’t betray the king. Not if she expected to keep her position.

The moment I was dried and redressed, I dug my phone out of the mess of linens and typed out a message.

I forgive you. You were in a difficult situation and I might have done the same if our roles were reversed.

My finger hovered over the send button.

Julian had also been in a difficult situation. He’d wanted to protect me from Titus as quickly as possible. That alone was almost noble.

I hit send, jammed the phone in my pocket, and headed downstairs.

Julian waited for me in his study, seated comfortably with one arm slung over the back of the sofa.

“If you had told me what your plan was, what you felt you needed to do, I might have agreed,” I said, taking a seat beside him.

Julian nodded. “You might have. But you might not have. I wasn’t willing to risk that. Your safety is too important, Eden.”

I bit my cheek, quashing the rising anger in me. “You still don’t get it, Julian. As much as you feel justified in your actions, you still hurt me. You betrayed my trust. You took my free will. Don’t you see how damaging that is?”

Julian remained calm, relaxed, even. “I won’t apologize for protecting my mate. It is my duty as king, as someone lucky enough to have a mate, to protect you at all costs. Even if you don’t agree.”

“Goddamnit, Julian. I’m not mad that you protected me. I’m hurt and upset that you did so without thinking I needed to know about it. You’re so tightlipped, only explaining after acting, if even then. But we’re supposed to be in this together and we can’t do that if you won’t talk to me.”

Julian shook his head. “I couldn’t risk you not agreeing and I won’t apologize for protecting you, Eden. It is my main priority. Why can’t you understand that?”

I gawked at him. Why couldn’t he understand how much his protection had hurt me? How much it had broken my trust in him? “We’re just going in circles here.”

“You’re right. Why don’t you try to let this go and I’ll—“

I shot out of my seat, staring down at him. “Try to let it go? Christ on a cracker, Julian. You drugged me without my consent! Why can’t you see how fucked up that is?”

Julian stood slowly, towering over me. “And why do you refuse to see that I had no choice and my reasoning was sound?”

“Are you kidding me? Let me see if I can count how many other options you had. I’ll try to keep it to one hand. One, you could have fucking told me and I might have agreed. Two, you told me, I didn’t agree, but we came up with something different together. Three, you might have had a conversation with Titus about it—hypothetically, of course—to see what his thoughts were. He’s actually quite reasonable.”

“Reasonable? You think that blight on our kind is reasonable?”

“From what I saw, yes. I do.”

“You’ve spent, what, ten minutes with him? I’ve known that vampire for centuries and you think you know better than I?”

“I know that Cypress City isn’t at all what the rumors say it is.”

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