Page 135 of Coveted

Or rather… the night I chose to. That’s more accurate. I agreed because I wanted to experience new things in a new world.

At Darkbloom.

With him.

I was scared, yes, but also excited by him and how he made me push myself.

His deceptions are difficult to swallow though. How can I trust him after this?

“What you did wasn’t just about protecting me.” I tap the monitor displaying my bed. “That camera’s on my suitcase, right? You put it there on my first day. Before Parker was killed. Before I needed protection. That was just you being a creep.”

Maddeningly, a smirk twitches the side of his mouth. Even more maddeningly, it makes a very, very unwise part of me want to kiss him.

“Okay, true,” says Lucan. “But is that a crime?”

“Yes, actually.”

He gestures at the doorway. “You’re free to go to the police.”

I stay where I am. Aside from anything else, reporting him would be pointless. The police are in his pocket.

“I’ll take that as a no,” he says. “What’s the problem then?”

My eyes fall to the papers for Ink & Ivy Books. “The surveillance, the secret interference with my education, your instinct to control. I don’t know if I can handle it. Handle you. You’re just⁠—”

Lucan walks to the window and looks out. “Too much to bear?”

Guilt trickles through my ribs, because I remember that’s what his mother said about him right before she left.

But god, maybe it’s true. He might need to hear it.

“You can push people away by holding them too tightly,” I say quietly.

“But that’s just it, Sadie.” His voice is subdued. “I thought you wanted to be held tightly. I thought you liked it.”

I did. I do.

Where’s the line though? There has to be one. Otherwise I’m his possession, not his partner.

My head throbs with the effort of deciding what I’m okay with and what I’m not. All I want is to be alone in my bedroom. Actually alone, without a tracking pendant or cameras monitoring my every move.

I need to get out of here.

Silently, I gather my remaining clothes and get dressed.

“Let’s take a minute, okay?” I join Lucan at the window. “I need space and time to think. Plus we have exams. I need to study. In the meantime, you’re going to stop spying on me.”

He faces me. The skyline darkens behind him like a moody painting.

“What if the killer comes for you?” he asks.

“I have a stun gun and friends. Plenty of people are on high alert. I’ll be fine, I promise.”

A muscle in his jaw ticks. “You can’t guarantee that.”

“Nor can you.” I touch his wrist. “That’s the part I think you have trouble with.”

As I leave, Lucan gazes at me like he fears he might never see me again.