Page 43 of Change

Her shoulders tensed, and she looked back to the hospital. “Why?”

“Because this isn’t something you should be worrying about alone.”

The building was almost at full capacity fromthedinner rush, but we were still shown to a private booth. It was permanently on reserve for my use only, usually for last-minute business dealings with high-ranking officials and delicate negotiations.

I sipped my wine, watching Bianca nervously run her finger around the rim of her glass. She’d hardly spoken the entire drive here, and considering what had happened, I’d been content to leave her to her thoughts.

But now I had to get her to open up.

So yeah, this was a good spot to be: we were in a ‘delicate situation.’

“You did good,” I said, noticing the way her fingers jumped at the sound of my voice. I’d been doing my best to contain myself around her, because it hadn’t escaped my attention that, while she wasno longer afraid of me,shifters still made her nervous. But after today, she was more sensitive than usual.

Not that I blamed her.

I hated seeing her like this.

Bianca’s lips twitched into a sarcastic smile, and she continued to stare at her water. “How?”

“You still talked to Trinity even though you were scared,” I replied. “That was a brave thing to do.”

Her expression closed. “I’m not going to let her examine me.”

I really wished she would, but it wasn’t my decision. “It’s okay.” For now. She might say no, but I fully believed that she would agree on her own sometime soon. However, she had to feel comfortable.

“You’ll go when you’re ready,” I added. “I’ll be there if you want someone with you.”

“What?” She stopped stirring her finger around the glass and finally looked at me.

“It’s up to you.” I shrugged, ignoring the way her face darkened. “But you don’t need to face any of this alone.”

“Why do you keep sayingthat?” She grabbed her straw and stabbed it through the crushed ice. “Damen says it too, like when I first came home from the hospital.”

Damen said lots of things, he never could stop running his mouth—it caused more problems than it solved. But I could see that she was going somewhere with this. “Yes?”

“Why do you care so much about how I handle this?” she asked. “Why can’t you let me deal with things on my own?”

Because it wasn’t healthy. Because she was avoiding the hard things and not recovering—at least, not until she was forced to confront something head on. And… “Because you’renotalone.” I crossed my arms on the table and leaned forward. “And, sorry to remind you—” No, I wasn’t. “—but you’re not the only one affected by this. We need to talk about our relationship.”

She flushed, and her expression gutted me, but I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I would wait for forever, but we still had to talk. If for no other reason than to mentally prepare myself for what to expect.

“W-what do you want from m-me?” Her question twisted my heart.

But I needed to know. “Expectations.”

“W-what expectations?” A hitch of fear spiked through the air, and her voice squeaked. “Julian said…” her statement trailed off as she stared at me, eyes wide.

“And you told Julian,” I interrupted. “Miles too, even Damen. But you’ve never toldme.”

“But they’ve told you, right?” she whispered.

“Yes,” I began cautiously. I hated doing this, but there were some things we had to discuss directly. “Butwestill have to talk about it.”

“What’s there to talk about?” Her eyes dropped from mine. “I can’t have sex.”

I’d prepared for this. I’d already heard this from the others, Julian and Miles especially laying out her refusal in crystal clear detail, but it was still something else hearing it from her. Her words were a splash of cold water to my face.

“I understand that.” I really did. After what she’d been through, no one would blame her.