Page 72 of If You Were Mine

“I should have noticed though,” Dorian growled. “You could have been hurt far worse.”

I shifted onto the bed and patted beside me. “Will you sit here?”

“I’ll crush you,” he said softly.

“You won’t. I just want to cuddle. Please?” I was pleading, and he narrowed his gaze at me, but he lowered the railing and settled in. I sank into his warmth, finally breathing for the first time.

“You passing out like that nearly took ten years off my life. Probably more.” He kissed the top of my head, and I nestled into his side. Thankfully, it was on his non-burned side, but I had a feeling even if it wasn’t, Dorian wouldn’t have cared. I would have though. I would do anything not to hurt him.

“I always try to take care of myself, but I guess I hadn’t really paid attention to exactly how many times I’d had to catch my breath.”

“Wellesley,” he growled out.

“I know. I know. I’ll do better. I just sometimes forget.”

“Does anyone else know that you deal with this sometimes?” he asked softly.

I shook my head. “No. I don’t want people to think I’m weak.” There, I said it out loud.

“I don’t think anybody who knows you would ever think that, Harper Wellesley. But you should tell your friends. So they can be on the lookout. Because we both know that you don’t take care of yourself the way you should.”

I pinched his hip softly. “You don’t do the same.”

“I’m learning. Because you’re making me.”

I looked up at him then and kissed his chin. “Then I guess you’ll have to make me.”

“You don’t have to keep what happened to you as a child a secret from your best friends. Or at least you don’t have to keep the consequences of that a secret. Okay? I don’t want you to ever feel like you have to hide things from me. And I want others to keep an eye out on you too.”

There was so much to unpack from that, so I just leaned into him a little more and let out a breath. “Sometimes I feel like I tell you all my secrets, but I don’t know any of yours.”

It must have been the meds making me say that, because I shouldn’t have said that aloud. We were just finding our equilibrium, and I wasn’t owed any of his.

But Dorian’s arms tightened around me, and he let out a breath. “I can tell you one. One that nobody else knows.”

I froze, my hold tightening once more. “You can trust me,” I whispered.

“I trust you with everything, Wellesley.”

And then he let out a breath and told me exactly why he was avoiding his family.

And everything changed.

Chapter 14

DORIAN

Mom: You can’t continue to push me out of your life. I’m your mother.

Mom: If you continue to act like this, I will have to change your mind.

Mom: The more you act like that man, the more you do resemble a Cage.

Mom: If you don’t call me back, I will tell them the truth about who you are.

Mom: How could you stay in that house? You know what that house means.

Mom: I’m going to tell them.