All Hail - J. Bree Page 0,45

what is going on but there’s a heap of touching and sexual tension?

I need Lips and I need some girl talk, even if she is the worst at it.

I shake my head at him and he looks like he wants to talk about it some more but the car behind us starts blaring their horn and he has to focus on the road some more.

I argue with him about walking me into my house but Illi is nothing but a gentleman with me, opening the car door and unlocking my front door for me. He calls out to Aodhan too but I hightail it for the staircase, intent on scrubbing the night away from me.

I’m not ashamed… except for the part where it still wasn’t enough for Atticus to really accept me and want me for who I am, not the perfect image of a girl he has in his head.

I empty my purse out on the bed and then I stalk into the bathroom, throwing it in the bin, followed by my shoes.

There’s no way I could wear them again after this.

I don’t even want to look at them.

I’m too busy in my own head to even notice that Aodhan has followed me up here, that whatever Illi said to him didn’t make him run out of here screaming into the night never to look back again, until he gently takes my wrist and turns me around to face him.

I’m not sure if I’m relieved he’s still here or pissed that I now have to deal with the consequences of my night.

He doesn’t say a word, just slowly looks over every inch of me, takes everything in until my skin begins to crawl.

My voice sounds strange even to my own ears as I say, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

His hand reaches out and touches the top of the thigh split on my dress and I look down. There are threads loose there from where Atticus tore it up my body and out of the way, and suddenly I feel dirty.

I will not cry.

Aodhan doesn’t speak either. I don’t even think about what’s right or wrong, I just strip out of the dress and throw it into the bin in the bathroom. The mirror there isn’t kind to me but I stare at every inch of my skin on show, assessing and finding myself wanting. The silicone bra is a fucking nightmare to get off and my feet feel as though I’ve been standing in glass all day.

I stumble into the shower and let the scalding water drench my skin.

“If that motherfucker hurt you, I’m calling Illi and taking his fucking fortress on. I’m sure we could take the suits out.”

I choke on a sob. “He didn’t. We had sex but I wanted to… even if that’s not a smart thing to do and now here I am, telling you about it so I’ll lose you too.”

It just slips out of me, that little bit of hope that I have that all of this touching and flirting and cheek kissing means something so I tense up while I wait for him to cut me down. God, even if he did want me, I’ve just given him the best opportunity to walk out of her and forget about me.

He opens the shower door and reaches in to turn the heat of the water down with a scowl. “Just because you’re hurting doesn’t mean you should boil to fucking death in there.”

I glance down and find my skin way past rosy red and into that bright lobster shade that my OCD tendencies loves so much. “I need to get clean.”

His eyebrows draw together and his voice dips low. “Then grab some fucking soap. Stop hurting yourself over some motherfucker who doesn’t deserve you and don’t worry about something as stupid as me leaving. You think I don’t know you love him? You think that shit will scare me off? Queenie, nothing affects you and me except you and me. He’s not going to ruin this for us, get that through that gorgeous head of yours.”

Chapter Twelve

I wake up to my phone ringing.

I turn on the lamp beside my bed and then almost have a heart attack at the sight of Aodhan sleeping in the bed next to me. After I’d scrubbed myself raw, ignoring his growling and grumbling about how rough I was being, Aodhan had tucked me into my bed and laid with me to listen to everything