Page 195 of Endgame

“There you are.” Warm hands rush to cover mine, to peel my hands off my face. “There you are.”

He’s the earthquake. He’s the storm. I should get up, I should run for my life.

Instead, I stay.

“What is it?” He’s crouching beside me, gray eyes studying mine as if he has the power to pull the answers out of me. “What hurts the most?”

As soon as he asks that, as his thumbs press against my skin, another wave of pain tears through me.

But it’s not the cramps this time.

It’s him. His fierce devotion to me. How badly I want it. All of it. All the time. How selfish I feel.

My teeth sink into my bottom lip.

“Everett.” A sob tears from me. “Loving you hurts.”

He furrows his brow. An emotion that looks a lot like anguish curves his mouth downward.

For a fleeting moment.

Next, I’m up in the air, being scooped into his arms.

“I don’t give a damn.” Everett supports me from under my thighs and back.

My nightgown presses against my legs, soaked with my blood.

He has to feel it too.

He must understand what this is.

Nothing on his face betrays any kind of disgust. He carries me to the shower in the corner of the room, his face stony.

“It’s not what you think.” Despite the shame and the blood, I place my clean palm on his cheeks. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

His unreadable gaze lands on me, stealing my breath. “Then?”

“We could’ve…” My tears have dried. My desire for him is ever-present, despite the cramps. “We could’ve been related,and I would’ve come back to you eventually. I would’ve wanted to be with you, no matter what. That hurts.”

His jaw works, and it’s hot. How furious he is. “What makes you think I would’ve let you walk away?”

“You see, we would’ve been stupid about it. Destructive. Every cell in my body wants you. All of me loves you, in the most selfish, reckless ways.”

“Quiet.” He lowers me to the floor, gripping my chin in his hand. “You seem to keep forgetting this one final truth. You and I? We’re bound for life. There’s noifs ormaybes. Nowhens either. You’re mine until the day I die. And even death won’t be the end of us. I’ll come for you from the afterlife. My body will be rotting in the ground, but my soul will come back to claim you. If you think I’m joking, fucking test me. Drive a knife through my heart. See how long it takes me to be right here again, by your side.”

The raw emotions rolling off him make my knees buckle. Everett hooks an arm around my back, steadying me. Yanking me to him for a vicious kiss.

“Hurts,” I murmur, my lips brushing his.

“I don’t care if it hurts, don’t you understand?” he growls as his lips trail a hot path along my jaw, my neck. “Can’t you see that nothing could ever come between us?”

“Yes.” My thighs clench, my breasts heavy with desire. “I see that.”

I’m also on my period. I’m bleeding.

And his cock is hard against me.

Surely, he can’t want this.