The Summer King Bundle 3 Stories - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,197

and I planned to tell you tonight—”

“You mean last night. You’ve been out for almost twelve hours.”

“Oh,” I whispered.

He shoved a hand through his hair again. “This isn’t the time for this conversation. You need to take it easy—”

“I am taking it easy, and there is no other time we should be having this conversation. I’m sorry, Caden. You have to believe that. I wanted to tell you. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Tink. You can even ask Tanner. I wanted—”

“Then why didn’t you tell me the moment you realized we could be together?” he asked.

“I was just overcome. I knew I should have, but my head was all over the place,” I admitted. “I thought we had time.”

“You thought wrong,” he said, and my gaze flew to his. “If I had known, I could’ve stopped what happened.”

“How?” I asked. “How could you have stopped this? If someone wants me dead, whether or not I’m pregnant won’t change that. You said this flower or whatever would’ve most likely killed me if I hadn’t been given the Summer Kiss.”

“If I had known, I would’ve made sure you weren’t given something that could’ve killed our child.”

“How? Are you going to taste everything I eat and drink?”

“Fuck, yes!” he shouted. “I would taste everything that wasn’t prepared by my hands.”

“And if I wasn’t pregnant, you would’ve been like YOLO then? Let me drink whatever?”

His eyes narrowed. “It would’ve taken a lot more than that to kill you. And no, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t or wouldn’t be worried about someone targeting you, but at least I know that you wouldn’t be easy to kill. Our child is a whole different story.”

I dragged my hand over my face, realizing then that he was a hundred percent serious about tasting my food and drink. “I…I don’t know what to say other than I understand why you’re upset. I do. And I hope you understand why I didn’t say anything. But I’m sorry, Caden. I don’t know what to say to make this better.”

Jaw working, he looked away. “Neither do I.”

My chest squeezed. “What…what does that mean?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t,” he said, and my chest clenched. “If I hadn’t told you that you being with me wouldn’t be a risk, when were you going to tell me?”

“I planned on telling you as soon as you were married—”

“So, you were going to wait until I did what? Moved on from you? Picked a fae?” He took a step toward the bed. “Did you really believe that I would just choose to be with someone else when I knew that you love me? That I would’ve just walked away?”

“Before I knew that I could be with you, that’s what I’d hoped you would do,” I admitted. “I wouldn’t have liked it. I would’ve hated it—loathed every second of it—but it was the right—”

“You can believe all you want that it was the right thing to do. Maybe on a superficial level, it was, but our child changes that. Keeping that knowledge from me was never the right thing. Not when you love me. Not when you know I love you.” He turned, his body stiff. “And the worst part of this is the fact that you really believed I would move on. That I could just happily go and marry someone else.”

“I didn’t think you’d do that happily.”

“But you told Tanner to do whatever was necessary to make sure I married a fae,” he shot back, and I stiffened. “Yes, he told me how the woman I love conspired with others to make sure I ended up with someone else while she was carrying my child.”

It felt like my heart had stopped. “I didn’t conspire. It wasn’t like that. I couldn’t risk the whole world. Not when our child would have to grow up in it.” My hand went to my stomach. “What I was trying to do doesn’t change that I love you, Caden.”

“But you didn’t love me enough to fight for me, did you? You didn’t love me enough to trust that things would be okay.” His jaw hardened. “And you sure as fuck didn’t respect me enough to tell me about our child.”

“Caden—” I started, but the door opened then, revealing Luce. “Can you give us a moment?”

“I don’t think so.” Luce was rocking one hell of a no-nonsense tone and expression. “I’ve been monitoring Brighton’s heart rate and blood pressure remotely, and I apologize, my King. I know you