Page 342 of Hell Hath No Fury
I nodded, giving her a quick smile to let her know I was fine.
She’d warned us about this side of the dark. We must exist in gray, she’d say. Neither light nor dark but firmly in the middle. That was what we were, where we belonged, and how we survived.
The juice leaking from the turkey upon my plate warped from oily and brown one second to a deep dark red the next. I stared at it until everyone began to rise and drift around the suite, growing more intoxicated and louder by the minute.
Some people were leaving. I took that as a sign that we could too. Looking at Rose, I jerked my head toward the doors, and she set her drink down.
“How’d you get here?” I asked once we were out in the hall.
“I came with Dad,” she said, tugging at her skirts and slipping her purse over a shoulder. “I did plan to go home with him, too.”
I paused at that and glanced down the empty hall before backtracking. “You’re mad.” A clipped statement I couldn’t control.
Rose licked her teeth behind those full red lips. “I’m not mad. I’m just… frustrated, Cooper. We need to talk about what happened and why you’re avoiding me.”
“I’m fine,” I said, knowing she could tell I was lying but doing so anyway. “Come home with me.” I cupped her cheeks, my thumbs gliding over the soft ridges. I’d lie my way through this if I had to. I couldn’t be without her, and I’d been depriving myself for too long.
Rose’s long lashes fluttered as a small breath left her parted lips. A hand enclosed over mine, her dark eyes glistening. “I want to, and I hate that I want to. I want to ignore all of this, just like you, and hide beneath your ugly comforter as if it didn’t happen.”
I swallowed over the swelling in my throat. “Rose…”
“No,” she said, so soft yet so firm. “I want to, but we can’t. You need to talk to me first and tell me what’s going on in that infuriatingly good-looking head of yours.” She smirked, but it dropped quickly. “Please, Coop. It doesn’t need to be this scary, impossible thing.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.” I stepped back, removing my hands. “That it happened, but I wished it didn’t? He’s our fucking headmaster, Rose.”
A small crease appeared between her brows. “It’s weird, yeah,” she said, “but it’s not a big deal, Cooper.”
“Not a big deal?” I blinked hard, and then I snapped, hissing at her, “It’s not a big deal that I shared you? That I was forced to? That he had you?”
“Cooper,” she began, taking a cautious step closer.
“No.” I moved back. “Itisa big deal, Rose, because what kind of man does that make me?” I growled the words. “Huh? What does that say about me that I liked that some asshole not only touched but also fucked my girlfriend? That I think about it constantly, and it makes me hard as fuck? That I’m not okay with it, but I can’t fucking control it?”
She just stood there, staring at me, and behind her appeared the problem himself.
Taurin.
He didn’t come closer, but he watched.
My heart quit beating, everything turning leaden and far too heavy to carry.
I closed my eyes, reopening them on my girlfriend, and wished I could blast the last minute into oblivion, erasing everything I’d just said.
CHAPTER FIVE
Rose
I had no idea what to say.
Not because I was concerned but because elation, pure and honey-sweet, roared through me.
Taking my silence the wrong way, Cooper said, “Exactly,” and stormed off down the hall.
“Cooper, wait,” I called, hurrying after him. “It’s okay, I promise.”
“It’s not, Rose.” He pressed his thumb to the sensor inside the elevator, the doors rolling closed before I could reach him. “Get home safely.”
He was too caught up in his own reaction, in his own inner peril, to see just how right this was, and that we could survive it and make it ours.
