Page 70 of Serpentine Valentine

“Okay, can you tell me what happened now?” she asked, sitting beside me to frame my face with her hands.

I bit my lip so hard I drew blood.

She wiped it away with her thumb and sucked it into her mouth.

My heart shivered, and my groin pulsed.

God, I felt bewitched by her.

And knowing that, I felt a little steadier.

I hadn’t left my mom because of Lex. I’d left because I’d discovered I was living with a woman I couldn’t respect. But Lex had been a part of making me realize that and a surge of warm gratitude washed through me, cleansing away some of the gunk in my heart.

“It’s only been like two hours, but I feel it’s been two days,” I admitted wearily. “I ran into some old friends on the way home, and they confronted me about how you beat up Beckett and about…about our relationship.”

She frowned. “We didn’t act romantically when I went to get you last night.”

“Well, you did beat someone up for groping me.”

“He deserved it.”

“Oh-kay…so it had nothing to do with me?” I asked, peeking at her through my lashes.

She sighed. “Of course it did. I usually have better control over my temper than that. Seeing you that way with him looming over you…I snapped.”

“Because you care about me?” I dared to ask, holding my breath as I searched her face for the answer.

She stared right back at me, gray eyes hooded.

My lungs started to ache, and black spots whirled across my vision, but still, I didn’t breathe.

Finally, she sighed and reached for my hand to place it against herbreast, over her heart. “I don’t have much in me to give anymore, Lux, but yes, I care about you. I wouldn’t be able to bear your touch if I didn’t, let alone crave it the way I do. I wouldn’t be able to show you glimpses of the pain shredding my insides to bits every day if I didn’t trust you to be good to me.”

“I care about you, too,” I said, a little too eager, a little too free, but I didn’t care.

She made me feel that way. Giddy with liberty.

“I told them I cared about you, too,” I admitted. “I told them they were bullies for how they talked about you, and I told them…I told them I was bi.”

Lex’s hand flexed over my own. “You didn’t owe them that.”

“No, but I owe it to myself if that makes sense.”

She rubbed a thumb over the back of my hand. “Yes, it does.”

“They didn’t take it well. Practice later will probably be awkward because I called Flora out on her bigotry, but I’m glad I did it. I’ve been silent and easygoing my whole life. It felt good to take a stand.”

“I’m glad,” she said, smiling a little. “I wish I could have seen it. I bet you were magnificent.”

“I tried to channel my inner Lex Gorgon.”

She laughed, and the sound almost made everything better.

But then I remembered why I was there with suitcases.

“My mom was waiting for me when I got home. The news about last night had already reached her. She knows everything that goes on around campus…I should have known she knew the truth about what happened to you.” Tears pooled in my lower lids and started to drip again, one by one down my cheeks. “I just never thought she could be so…so selfish and cruel.”

I was so locked into my own sorrow that I didn’t really noticethe way Lex stiffened.