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“You’ve seen Atticus?” Mom leans forward with excitement. “Why didn’t you say anything? When? Where? What does he look like?”
I hesitate, but I make the split-second decision that this was the best way to break the news to them. Gradually and with care. Maybe if they see how much I love Rhys and how good we are together, when we finally tell them, it won’t be such a surprise.
“He stayed with me at the cabin,” I tell them very carefully, speaking slow like I’m trying to calm two startled horses.
“The cabin?” Mom cries.
“You took some deranged lunatic to an isolated cabin in the woods for a whole week with no reception?” Oz roars, looking on the verge of lunging to his feet and strangling me.
I quickly put a hand up. “I have known him a really long time and I have never felt safer with anyone.”
“Adeline!” Mom exclaims, looking as frantic as her husband. “He could have murdered you. He could have buried you somewhere and we would—”
I grab her trembling fingers. “Mom, I swear to you, I’m safe with him. He’s amazing and he loves me and ... I love him. So much.”
There’s no missing the war rampant on her beautiful face. I know she wants to squeal and hug me with all the elation in her heart, but she’s struggling with all the possibilities of losing me.
“He would never hurt me,” I assure her quietly. “You know I’m not stupid. I wouldn’t have asked him to stay with me if I didn’t trust him with my whole heart.”
That seems to ease some of her worry. Her fingers squeeze mine and she draws in a breath.
“Of course you’re not stupid.” She pauses, sounding a little breathless like she’d been holding her breath. “I just wish you had told me you were going to be alone with a stranger the entire week. I could have—”
“You were in Greece,” I reminded her.
“I could have sent Rhys. He could have made sure you were okay.”
I fight not to grimace. “Mom, I’m fine. Look at me. I don’t need a babysitter. I’m a whole grown person fully capable of handling myself.”
“That was still a very reckless decision, Addie,” Oz says.
“I wanted him there with me. I wanted to spend time with him and—”
“Yoga!” Mom yelps suddenly and claps her hands over her mouth, but she has everyone’s attention.
“Yoga...?” I began, bemused.
We make eye contact, and I see the understanding dawn across her face. The realization. Now, I’m covering my mouth as fire erupts beneath my skin.
“What about yoga?” Oz breaks into our locked stare.
Mom has her lips mashed together, smothering her grin as she lowers her hands and faces her husband. “Nothing. We just really love yoga.”
We both burst out laughing as Oz frowns at us with disapproval.
But Rhys.
Rhys is watching me, eyes dark fire pits devouring my very essence. There’s a warning and a promise in his perfect stillness that steals my air and dampens the place between my thighs.
“I don’t think this is funny, my love. We could have lost her,” Oz is stressing to Mom, oblivious to the fact that his son is practically fucking me with his eyes a few feet away.
“I would never have let that happen,” the man in question murmurs quietly.
Oz ruffles a hand back through his hair, looking no less stressed. He shakes his head.
“Well, it seems like I’m the only one who is worried you could be someone’s lampshade right now.”
Rhys frees me from his spell long enough to glance at his father. “Do you think I would ever let anything hurt her?”
