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“I actually do. I’ve got somewhere I need to be.” She pulled her phone from her pocket and checked it. “In half an hour as a matter of fact.” She slid off the light coat she was wearing and draped it over the back of the couch.

I let my gaze leave her beautiful face and slide down the rest of her body. My mouth went dry and my hands immediately curled into fists. She was wearing a black dress, one that clung to her body and every one of her sweet curves. A couple of silver necklaces rested on the mounds of her soft breasts, and she wore silver bracelets that jangled as she moved. Her legs were bare, and she was wearing lace-up boots with a chunky heel. Add the hair and the makeup and she looked edgy and sexy as fuck.

The grip in my gut turned into jealous fury. “Hot date?” I said, and somehow I kept all that I was feeling out of my voice, or at least I hoped I did.

She glanced up at me, and her cheeks had turned pink. “Something like that.”

My fox lost his mind, and I grabbed the back of the couch to stop myself from leaping over it, pinning her to the wall, and demanding she tell me who. I wanted to tear the fucker to pieces, whoever he was. I couldn’t stop myself asking, “Rome?”

Her brows shot up, then she chuckled as if I wasn’t over here internally having a rage seizure. “Roman and I are friends, nothing more. You know that. He’s like…a brother.” Her cheeks darkened further. “I was a dick for giving you the impression that there was ever anything more between us.” She shook her head. “So no, not Rome.”

“Then who?” I asked, because I had to know.

She chuckled again and tucked her hair behind her ear. “No one you know. I’m nervous enough, let’s talk about something else. Like Agatheena’s message, for example. I’m desperate to know if she has something that can actually help.”

There was not one thing I would rather talk about than who this male was and where I could find him alone later tonight so I could fuck him up. Because this wasn’t fucking happening.

I was the stupid fucking asshole who’d rejected her, though. I didn’t get to decide who she dated.

“Right, yeah, of course.” I shoved my hands in my pockets because my hands were shaking like hell from rage and regret and this awful feeling that I’d made a terrible mistake. “It’s just one word. I don’t know what it means, never seen it before, so I’m guessing it’s a clue. I’ll give it to you after we…do the healing.”

“She’s not making it easy, then? Yeah, she definitely didn’t like me,” Jaz said, then rounded the couch and took the last few steps until we were almost touching, but not quite.

I shook harder, and there was no hiding it.

“You okay?” There was concern in her eyes.

The shy, longing looks she always gave me, that I’d told myself were something else, were gone. Feelings I only now realized she’d had for me, because she’d felt what I had, that connection, one mate recognizing the other. Or at least she had. Apparently, I’d destroyed anything she’d felt for me completely. And no, I wasn’t okay. “Yeah, this healing thing, it’s intense, that’s all.”

She nodded. “I know.” Then she wrapped her arms around me, pressing her soft, warm body the length of mine. Her face to my chest. Warmth immediately flowed from her into me, but it felt different. Everything was different. Before, I’d felt as if she were part of me, somehow. Now there was a distance between us, and I hated it.

“It’s okay, Ren. Everything’s going to be okay,” she said, her voice soft, soothing.

Still, that distance persisted. I shook harder, a restless feeling, an ache in the center of my chest burrowing deeper. Something was missing.

“I’ve got you,” she said.

Again, without realizing I was going to do it, my arms curled around her in return, and I held her tight, desperate for what was gone, whatever it was that was missing.

“That’s good, Ren, let it fill you,” she murmured.

I squeezed my eyes closed and wished this was how it could be, that she could be mine, that I wasn’t this broken mess—

Something shattered inside me.

She stilled. “Ren?”

“Yeah?” I choked out.

Jaz rubbed my back. “You’re hurting, I can feel it. There’s a…a new scar.”

She was the new scar, and it felt so big, it eclipsed everything else. Another rush of warmth washed through me, and my legs almost fucking buckled. “All good, Jaz. Guess when old shit heals, new shit comes up.”

“I guess,” she said, sounding unconvinced.

The euphoria hit, and it took everything I had not to bury my face against her throat and fill my lungs with her scent—to take her gorgeous face in my hands and kiss her breathless.

The time passed way too fast, then she was counting down the last ten seconds and I had to force myself to loosen my hold on her, to release her when her arms finally fell away, letting me go.