Page 118 of Unravel Me

“Rosie! Wait.”

She glances over her shoulder, waving me off. “I’m fine, Adam. Don’t worry about me.”

I catch her wrist, pulling her back to me. “Hey. Stop.”

Green eyes wobble, each breath sharp and staggered. “I’m fine,” she repeats, and the lie is so weak I nearly laugh. “You should be with your family. Bear will be awake soon. I just need to do something.”

“I am with my family, and I’ll be with Bear as soon as he wakes up. So tell me what you need to do and I’ll help you.”

She shakes her head, trying to pull free from my grasp. “I just need to…I just need to do something,” she cries, chest heaving as her face starts to crumble. “Please.”

“Rosie.” I run my palms up her arms, squeezing her shoulders. “Let go, sweetheart. Let it go.”

That lower lip trembles, and all I want to do is trap it beneath my thumb, take it between my lips. I want her pain, her worries, her trust. I want her to give up control, give it all to me. I’ll take care of her.

“I was so afraid,” she finally whispers, the words fractured and meek. “I was so afraid we were going to lose Bear. And I wasterrifiedthat you’d never forgive me for it. I thought I might lose both of you forever, and I—” A sob escapes her throat, racking her body. “I’ve survived a lot of things, but I don’t know how I’d survive that loss.”

Her agony wraps around my throat like a fist, threatening to cut off oxygen. When a fresh wave of tears cascades down her cheeks and she curls into herself, covering her face with her hands as she cries, I yank her into me. This time, I refuse to let her go.

“You will never lose me, Rosie. As long as you want me here, there’s nowhere else for me to be.” I press my lips tenderly to her temple as she clings to my shirt. “I promise.”

CHAPTER28

LONG TIME COMING

ADAM

“What are you doing?”

I shift my reading glasses up my nose and flip the page. “Reading.”

“I know that,” Garrett grumbles. “But reading what?”

“A book.”

He pins his arms over his chest and slumps in his plane seat. “You’re so annoying sometimes, you fuckin’ turkey.”

I smile to myself, sticking a blue tab to a passage in my book. Riling up Garrett is fun. He starts spewing all kinds of weird, colorful insults, most of them picked up from Jennie, who also likes to rile him up. For different reasons than me, though. Something about hand necklaces and other shit I’d rather not know.

“What’s that you’re doing there?” Jaxon gestures at the tabs I’m sticking in my book. “With the tabs?”

“It’s called annotating,” Carter answers for me, pulling a box of Oreos from his bag. “Oooh, fudge dipped. Fuck yeah, Ollie.” He rips open the package and tosses one in his mouth. “Aw-wie does it wif her spicy books.” He swallows the cookie so he can talk like an adult again. “She marks out all the sexy stuff she likes, and then we try it. Like this blindfold—”

“No.” I hold up a hand. “Stop. I hate how much I know about your sex life.”

Jaxon frowns. “So, you’re marking sexy shit to try with Rosie?”

“No, I’m—”

“Cara bookmarks porn she likes,” Emmett says. “That’s kinda like annotating, but with a movie, not a book.”

“What? No, that’s not the same—”

He smiles, a far-off look in his eyes. “Last week, she came out of the bathroom wearing this leather—”

“For fuck’s sake, I don’t want to know about any of your sex lives!”

“Whoa,” Garrett murmurs, eyes wide. “Someone’s testy.”

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