Page 163 of Entangled

They look good together.

They could have been great.

After a moment, he drops his arm and straightens, then squeezes her shoulder before he leaves.

Eden steps back inside and looks at me.

I throw down the bandage and pick up another one. “Leave it be, darlin’.”

She comes to settle in beside me, and she stops my hand on the half-rolled fabric. Her hair is loose and tumbling all about her, and it smells like jasmine. She leaves it out for me, even though it takes her twice as long to care for in the morning.

“He’s your best friend, Beau.”

I look at her hand on mine, sweet and soft. “I’m tired of being a better friend to him than he is to me. I’m tired of wanting it more than he does.”

“Beau.” The hand squeezes. “He keeps coming right back to that door because hedoeswant it.”

Not enough.

“He told me about your ‘Plan,’” she says. “How you both wanted to find someone together? I’m... sorry. That I couldn’t be the one.”

Myocardial infarction. My heart stalls painfully in my chest.

Turning, I look her in the eyes. “This is why, Eden. Youarethe one. You’re everything. And if he can’t see that, he’s stupider than I realized. He doesn’t deserve you.”

Pink touches her cheeks in a gentle caress. I see her throat work as she swallows, looking away.

“He’s allowed to want other things. He’s been a good friend to me since the rescue.” Her thumb strokes my hand. “Don’t lose him over me, Beau. You two can be friends without me between you.”

The pink in her cheeks darkens to a deep flush—the shade it gets only when she’s embarrassed... or squirming with need.

“You know, I don’t think I can remember even having a relationship without him,” I confess. “Sometimes I wonder if that’s why we always failed. Neither one of us knew how to be a whole person for someone, and I think we always knew, if it came down to it, we’d choose each other. No one was ever more important than us. Jasper called us codependent.”

A small frown appears between her brows, and she looks up again to watch my face.

I run a knuckle over the lines.

“I think it’s time he and I had a break. We’ve been trying and failing for so long, and I can’t afford to fail this time. Because it’s you.” She looks like a tired angel, so beautiful it wrecks my heart. As I touch her, the lines soften. Smooth out. “I’m going to love you right, darlin’—even if it takes a lifetime to work out how. I’m not having him wreck it.”

I lean down and brush my lips against hers.

Eden sighs into my kiss. I can tell she wants to say more, that she doesn’t agree, but I can’t hear it right now. We kiss for long enough that she grows soft and needy underneath me, and I take her slow right there on the couch.

After I tuck her into bed, I go and stand at the window to watch the half-moon in the sky—and I waste hours wishing it were whole.

* * *

Dominic

The half-moon casts its sad beams over our defenses.

The tents rustle in the night, buffeted by a slow wind. Around Bristlebrook, the dry moat is hollow and unfinished, and the wooden spears piled beside it are dull and uncarved. There are two wooden vantages half-built on either side of the lodge—placed so we can fire on an invading force if they try to make it past the moat. That is, if they’re finished in time.

We have pit-traps and explosives on trips—all exposed and deactivated for now.

But it’s not going to matter.

If the Sinners descend on us in force, we might be able to hold them off. Maybe. But a lot of these people are going to die. Sam has the duffel of explosives that Eden took from Lucky’s stash. And with SEAL-trained Alastair and Mateo giving advice on strategy, those are going to do some damage no matter how I slice it.

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