Page 73 of Hungry As Her Python

The worry in his eyes hit me like a cold wave.

He wasn’t angry.

He was scared.

Of what?

Of losing you, a voice sounded inside my head.

And that was the problem.

I didn’t know how to carry someone else’s feelings without dropping them. I barely managed my own without making a mess.

What happened when he decided I wasn’t enough?

Or when he decided he wanted to change me?

Nobody outside of family and my girls had ever loved me as-is.

No edits.

No if you’d just do this clauses.

No man had ever looked at me the way he did.

I had no map for this.

But it was all too fast, and I felt slightly betrayed at his going ahead and forming a bond with me without my knowledge or approval.

“That’s it. I need you to leave.”

His jaw worked, muscles tightening like he was holding back a thousand words.

“Please, Bella. Just hear me out.”

“I can’t. Not right now. Just go.”

“Come on, bro. Let’s give them some time,” Jaxson muttered from behind him, and I heard more than saw them leave.

The moment Conrad was gone, it felt like someone had ripped out a piece of my soul and taken it with him.

I sank onto one of the stools behind the counter and let the tears fall.

In seconds, there were arms around me—one smelling suspiciously like spinach and peanut butter (thanks, Evie)—and the three of us just sat there and cried.

Messy, hiccuppy, not-pretty tears.

“Why my Witchy cries?!” Petyr’s voice rang out a moment later. “I will destroy Shifter who did this!”

I glanced over to see him already chewing a fistful of hardtack like it was gourmet.

How the little gremlin could stomach it, I had no idea.

But hey—free cleanup crew.

“Oh, no. Petyr, I think maybe Bella is just having some feelings,” Evie tried to reason with my familiar.

I could have saved her the trouble. He was like a dog with a bone when it came to some things. Me crying was one of them.