Page 77 of Lock

I’d been raised to accept that.

So why did it hurt more now?

Because now I knew what it felt like to be looked at like I mattered.

Even if it was messy. Even if it was wrong. Even if it was Lock.

I pressed my palm to my mouth and breathed.

I shouldn’t want him.

Not the way his voice dropped when he tried not to show he cared.

Not the way he watched the room when Ember defended me, like he’d already chosen who he’d put down if it went too far.

Not the way his eyes went dark and heavy when he thought I wasn’t looking.

And definitely not the way he’d kissed me.

I squeezed my eyes shut. It didn’t help.

Anger flared again, hot this time.

Because he didn’t get to touch me like that and then walk away like I was the mistake. Like I hadn’t wanted it too.

Like it hadn’t mattered.

10

LOCK

I wasup before the sun came up…

Not that I’d ever actually fallen asleep.

Kellan was warm against me, curled into me like he belonged there, like he hadn’t spent the whole day acting like a cornered animal and then somehow ended up trusting me enough to fall asleep with my arm around him.

That should’ve been a win.

So why did it feel like a problem?

One in a long line of many…

That’s what you get for breaking your own rules.

I stared at the ceiling in the dark and kept my breathing slow, steady. The kind of steady that kept men alive in war zones and kept presidents from doing stupid shit when their club was sitting on a powder keg.

My hand rested on his stomach.

Not tight.

Not claiming.

Just… there.

Like I’d needed to feel something real to stop my head from splitting open.

He shifted in his sleep, a small sound in the back of his throat like he was fighting a dream. My body reacted before my mind could catch up. My arm tightened a fraction, pulling him closer.