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He folded his thickly corded arms across his broad chest, and I couldn’t help but admire the sheer strength he emanated. I imagined the way they would flex as he used them to bring her pleasure, how they would look as he wrapped them around her smaller frame. The sight of them together was already stunning, but without clothes? It was a beautiful vision, one I hoped Icould see one day soon. He would be a good match for my ghost girl, indeed.

‘Why do you want her? Why Kali? I’m pretty sure I already asked that, and you just told me to leave, but I’m not going anywhere. So, why?’

A part of me chafed at being questioned, but a larger part admired his gumption. He was wary, that much I could see. He wasn’t a stupid man, but his concern over being around the most dangerous predator in this realm was overridden by his protectiveness, and I couldn’t help but admire him all the more for it. He wasn’t backing down in the face of adversity, and a spark of respect flickered to life.

I wasn’t one for making concessions, but I saw no reason not to answer his question. Man to man, I could at least afford him that.

The words tore from deep inside my blackened soul. ‘She is everything.’

I watched from the corner of my eye as Kali’s stance relaxed, her expression softening as my confession struck her where it mattered most. It was an admission I had even struggled to acknowledge to myself, and I wasn’t ready for its impact. I couldn’t watch their reactions when my own was a swirling vortex of fears and insecurities that had long since been buried, yet were now forced back to the surface. I didn’t want them. I was stronger than them. I wasbetter.

Except, they didn’t go away. They threatened to crush me to dust and then whisk me away in a tornado of destruction.

I couldn’t be here.

I couldn’t do this.

Kali’s mouth opened, ready to respond, but I had already let my shadows drag me away somewhere safe, somewhere far away and secluded, so I could file down the jagged edges of myemotional wounds and piece myself back together without an audience.

I needed to be stronger than this. I needed to overcome the scars of my past before I could ever fully accept them, or for them to accept me. If that was what I chose, I still hadn’t decided.

But my most concerning vulnerability was a lot more pathetically personal. I couldn’t allow either of them to see me so weak. So pathetic. So dismally unworthy.

Victoria’s words pushed forth, the memory of her voice, the sneer as she looked down upon me, the glee in her eyes as her laugh reverberated off the walls of my skull. It was a sound that hadn’t plagued me since I’d taken my revenge, but it came back now with so much force I couldn’t stop it no matter how hard I tried. I felt sick. It hit me like a knife to the heart,a reminder of the man I had once been. The words she had utteredright before she’d destroyed me.

Who could ever want a vile, worthless coward like you?

Chapter 14

Kali

Icouldn’t move. I could barely even think. All I could do was stare dumbly at Chance, who stared right back.

He was the first one to snap out of it, his thick black eyebrows arched in shock and confusion. And, goddamn it, hurt.

‘So… You and him, huh?’

I fiddled with my fingers, suddenly very afraid that I’d fuck it all up with him before we’d even been able to get started. Again. ‘Um, kind of.’

He inhaled slowly, his eyes shut tight and his head tilted up to the sun as he worked to ground himself, and I hurried to explain.

‘We sort of hate fucked.’ I choked on the words, embarrassment and shame working hard to close up my throat so I wouldn’t have to say it out loud, but he needed to know it wasn’t what Mortimer had made it out to be. ‘I didn’t think he would take that to mean I belonged to him, or… whatever that was. But I swear, Chance, it was nothing more than that.’

He huffed out a humourless laugh. ‘You?’ he asked, tilting his chin back down so he could meet my eyes. ‘A hate fuck? Kali, that doesn’t sound like you.’

Despite my best efforts, I bristled at the admonishment. ‘I’m not the same woman I was before I died, Chance. You were alive,I was dead, and Morty was there. I don’t know why he thought he could come here and stir shit up, but it didn’t –’

‘No, don’t,’ he interrupted, and I slammed my jaw shut with a clack of my teeth. ‘Don’t say it meant nothing, but it obviously meantsomething.At least to him. And I know you, Kali. I know your heart. You’ve never been the type to fuck for the sake of fucking. You don’t fuck around with people’s feelings, and there’s no way in hell you’ve changed so much that you’re no longeryouat a fundamental level.’

I didn’t know how to respond. Fuck, he was right, but I was reluctant to admit it. Morty terrified me, but in a way that made my core clench and my thighs slick. Denying it was only hurting us both more than necessary.

My shoulders slumped as I released a sigh of defeat, fear and shame warring for dominance inside me. ‘You’re right. It wasn’t nothing, but I meant it when I said it was only a one-time thing.’

His smile was small and sad, but there was no condemnation in his gaze as he held my eyes, only love and acceptance. ‘This isn’t how I thought things would go, but I should have known the universe would throw us another curveball.’

I opened my mouth, prepared to deny it, but he held up a hand to cut off my protests before they could escape. ‘Seriously, Kali. It’s okay. I’m trying to wrap my head around it, but it’s not really my place to judge you. You’ve been through a lot, he was there when you needed someone to be there, and it’s clear whatever’s going on between the two of you isn’t over.’

‘There’s nothing else going on, Chance, I swear,’ I tried again, but he didn’t believe me. Hell, I should have just kept my mouth shut, because evenIdidn’t believe me.