Page 81 of Defensive Desire

I take a step back, throat tightening. “Em—”

“No.” Her voice sharpens, slicing through the air like a slap. “Don’t you dare try to talk your way around this, Logan. You’ve haddays. Days to tell me. Weeks, even! And you didn’t.”

“I didn’t want to upset you—”

“Oh,fuck that.” Her eyes flash, bright and glassy. “You say I’m important to you. That this—we—mean something. But you couldn’t even tell me something that could rip us apart?”

I exhale slowly, raising a hand. "Emma, I was going to—"

"When?" she snaps. "When it was already done? When you were halfway to another city and I was still standing at the rink wondering why the hell you ghosted me?"

"It’s not like that."

"Then tell me how it is," she demands. "Because from where I’m standing, that's exactly how it looks."

I wince. Her words slice deeper than I expect.

"I didn’t want to worry you," I say, quiet. "It's not even official. I don't even know if it's me being traded. It’s just noise, Emma. There's always noise before the season starts."

She laughs, but there's no humor in it. Just disbelief.

"You think that makes it better? That it's 'just noise'? You say I’m important to you, but you couldn’t even tell me something that could potentially rip us apart. You let me believe we were building something—"

"Wearebuilding something," I cut in, desperate now.

But she steps back like I slapped her.

Jesus. My brothers didn’t just open the door to all of this. They kicked it off the damn hinges. Nate’s going to owe me a new fishing rod after this is all done.

"Then why the hell didn’t you trust me?"

I run a hand through my hair, pacing a few feet, heart pounding. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to ruin what we had. I was trying toprotectit. Protectyou.”

Emma lets out a bitter laugh that cracks something inside me.

"You don’t protect someone by lying to them, Logan. You protect them by telling the truth. By letting them stand beside you, not behind you."

“Iwasn’tlying,” I say, stepping forward. “I was—”

“—Withholding, Logan. That’s the same thing in my book.”

I flinch. Because dammit… she’s not wrong.

She backs up, voice shaking now. “So tell me… Was I just something to keep you warm while you waited for your next city?”

“No!” I say, louder than I mean to. “Christ, Emma, no. I don't even know what I want. TheIcehawksdon't even know yet.”

I want to tell her it’s not like that.

That trades, contracts, new cities… they’re all part of the game.

That nothing in my world is ever guaranteed, no matter how hard you fight for it.

But that excuse?

It’s not going to matter to a woman like Emma. Not when she’s spent her whole life having to prove shedeservesa seat at the table. When people have looked at her dreams and treated them like hobbies. When she’s had to claw her way through whispers and side-eyes just to get taken seriously.

I look at her. Really look at her.