The Price (House of Sin #5) - Elisabeth Naughton Page 0,46

and pulled them on. “Luc. Wait.”

He headed for the door. “This conversation’s over. Don’t follow me, Natalie.”

He tugged the door closed with a clack that echoed through the room around me.

Alone, as I stared at where he’d just been, I tried to figure out what the hell had just happened.

I had no explanation. Whatever had caused that reaction was rooted in something dark. In something he refused to share with me. And I had no idea how to reach him in that dark place. I didn’t even know if I should try.

A hole opened inside me. A chasm created by the growing distance between us. Along with a feeling that somehow, in some way, his family was responsible for this too.

Especially when I thought of that kitten who’d climbed over Luc in that ritual, and his mother’s comments in my ear about that woman possibly being fertile.

I couldn’t read Luc. He’d been on edge ever since that weird conversation about kids several nights ago. Every time I’d tried to broach the topic with him since, he’d said he was too tired to talk or he just flat out walked away from me.

He was doing that more and more—avoiding talking about anything even remotely serious, leaving me alone to go deal with his thoughts in private. I was trying to be patient. I knew he was dealing with a lot. But I was growing more frustrated by the day. And I was also starting to worry that not forcing him to deal with me and what had happened in that ritual room was actually hurting us instead of helping.

He was slipping away from me. I couldn’t deny that fact as I sat at the kitchen table, sipping my tea in the quiet afternoon light. He’d barely touched me in three days. All that cuddling he’d seemed to need before was gone now too. We were still sharing a bed at night, but instead of rolling into me as he’d done before, he was turning his back to me.

And I felt the void growing bigger between us each day. One that made my heart ache because I didn’t know how to bridge it. One I was afraid was just going to keep growing unless I found a way to get through to him.

That thought made my whole body hurt. But before I could get lost in the pain, a knock sounded at the kitchen door.

I startled and twisted toward the sound, then breathed a sigh of relief when I recognized Felicity’s face in the window.

Pushing out of my chair, I quickly crossed the tiles and pulled the door open. “Oh my God.” I hugged her, then Marco as they both stepped into the house. “What are you doing here?”

“Marco was tired of my parents.”

Setting several bags of groceries on the counter, Marco huffed. “She lies. I like her parents. She’s the one who wanted to leave.”

Felicity rolled her eyes then grinned. “Okay he’s right. My mother would not stop pestering me about weddings and babies. It was making me claustrophobic.”

I smiled, but inside nausea swirled in my gut because her comment just made me think about Luc’s declaration the other night that we were never having children.

“Where’s Luc?” Marco asked.

Running a hand through my hair, I told myself the whole kid thing didn’t even matter. I’d never even thought about having kids before him, so how could I be upset about the idea of not having kids now?

“Upstairs. He just got back from a run. He should be out of the shower if you want to go up and say hi.”

“Think I will.” With an ominous glance toward Felicity, Marco disappeared up the back stairs.

“What was that about?” I asked when he was gone.

Felicity moved around the island and sat on a barstool. “Guy stuff. I’m more curious about you. That look on your face makes me think things haven’t improved a whole lot since our conversation the other day.”

Unable to keep from frowning, I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back against the counter. “They haven’t.”

“He’s still not talking to you about what happened?”

I shook my head and looked down at my bare feet. “He’s not talking to me about anything anymore. And I don’t know what to do about it.”

Felicity tipped her head. “Did something happen?”

I wasn’t sure if I should bring it up but decided, what the hell. Maybe she could help me figure out what was going on with him. “We had this really weird conversation