Page 20 of Chain Me

“Sex with a man, obviously,” he countered. But even though I only had weeks of knowledge to draw from, I knew him too well: that wasn’t honesty. It was a rebuttal. An accusation.

Sex with ahumanman.

Because that is the only way you could possibly become pregnant.

I swayed as the world shifted. Suddenly, he was everywhere, blocking my path.

“You need to lie down.”

His nearness alone stirred my body’s instinctive flight or fight response. My heart screamed ‘flight’ but my pride, what little remained of it, wouldn’t cow to his accusation. I needed answers. Any answer, and he needed to be the one to give it.

“Do the math,” I panted against my palm. I knew he heard me, already piecing the timeframe together on his own.

In simple arithmetic, eight weeks ago resulted in a period roughly around the instance when I barged in on his suite, bleeding and half dead. When he cut me. When he kissed me. When he made me feel, for a second, that perhaps it all hadn’t been a complete lie…

No! I pushed back my blankets and tried to stand. Trembling legs collapsed beneath me, and I would have fallen if a hand didn’t cinch my arm at the last moment.

As if in a parallel universe, a woman walked by the doorway carrying a clipboard. She startled and looked up, only to turn away again. This moment was insignificant in her life. A chance meeting. A passing glance. Had she anything worthwhile to offer, how different a meeting might it have gone between her and the man behind me?

“Watch yourself!” Dublin’s grip locked me in place, hard and punishing.

Through his flexing fingertips, I could sense everything he didn’t dare say. Anger. Resentment. Fury?

“Get off—”

“Give me a name,” he countered. “Or can you even remember? You had me fooled, I will admit. Oh, that innocent little virgin act was a stroke of genius, but in the end, it seems your hunger needed to be sated by someone.”

“Stop!”

“No,” he grated against my ear as I resisted his vice-like grip. It was as if the curtain had been pulled back and his poised, suave act splintered, revealing the true beast lurking underneath, demanding answers of his own.

“Tell me. Who was he?”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it.

“Who?” His voice had devolved to a growl, lacking any semblance of polish though I couldn’t understand why. Certainly not…jealousy?

No. Self-pity instead. Poor Dublin Helos. How had the devious Ellie Gray managed to trick him this time? First by tangling him within his own web?

And now this?

Another sound tore from my throat at the thought of it, though this time I wasn’t sure if it was a cackle or a sigh.

“I may have sold you my virginity,” I tossed back to him. “But pardon me, Dublin, if I still have morals.” That was all I needed to say. Nothing else. Nothing bitter. Nothing real. Too late. More words spilled out. “You were the only one—”

My throat hitched and I grasped for the end of the mattress, leaning away from him. My chest heaved. It ached. God, I couldn’t catch my breath. I couldn’t catch anything. My senses. My sanity.

“What are you saying?” His voice reached me as if from miles away. I finally looked back.

He no longer glared, his jaw clenched.

A multitude of words sprung to my lips but just a handful escaped. “If I’m… If… You do realize that it would be because ofyou?”

The look on his face. I would never forget it. Like I just told the most beautiful lie. Like I had crushed his soul and self-worth in one fell swoop.

Like I had hurt him this time.

And God, I would have been lying if I claimed I took pride in it.