Page 89 of After All This Time

"Okay, I get that she's been counting down to this day since before her husband died, but seriously? You couldn't let her have her moment?"

Tobias doesn't move. He's standing there with his hands buried in his pockets, chin low, looking like something carved from shadow and sin.

God, he looks like a fucking savage.

"Is that what you want? Me to go pretend to a woman I can't stand that maybe, if she's lucky, she'll end the night wrapped around my cock?"

This isn't him—not the Tobias I know.

This is something darker, something feral, wearing his skin.

"No, but come on, she's going to go straight to my mom or your dad and probably cry some more fake tears about how you rejected her."

He tilts his head back, eyes searching the ceiling for the patience he lost hours ago.

"I really don't give a fuck, Firefly." Then his eyes snap back to me, blazing with something fierce, and he drops the question like a grenade. "You and Bryce—was there something there?"

"He asked me to prom. That's as far as it went, not that it should matter."

"It matters, Mills."

"Well, it shouldn't," I snap, my frustration spilling over. "Not when you've slept with half the people in this house."

"I get it. Trust me, I really fucking get it." His voice cracks slightly, exposing something raw underneath. "Because I'm jealous of a guy that's never even had you, so I know you must wanna throw hands at some of the people here right now."

"No, Tobias, you'll only get it when you hear me screaming Bryce's name through the fucking wall."

I don't wait for his reaction. I push past him, my chest tight, every nerve in my body screaming at me to get out of there. Butbefore I can take two steps, his hand wraps around my arm. The contact freezes me in place, my pulse thundering in my ears, each beat matching the slow, torturous circles his thumb traces against my skin.

"Don't, Amelia."

Just two words, but they're loaded with enough emotion to drown in. This isn't just anger or jealousy anymore. It's want, denial, and an ache so deep it's tearing him apart from theinside out.

I wrench myself out of Tobias's grip, storming toward the stairs, my chest heaving with frustration. I need to get out of here and put some space between us.

But I don't make it far.

Before I can take another step, my world tilts—literally. Tobias scoops me up like I'm made of air, and my stomach does this weird flip that has nothing to do with suddenly being vertical. Before I can process what's happening, I'm slung over his shoulder, his arm locked around my thighs.

"Tobias!" I bark, my hands smacking against his back. "Put me down!"

My hair falls in my face, and when I push it away, I'm greeted with an infuriatingly perfect view of his ass. Because clearly the universe hates me, and even mid-abduction, the man has to be a walking temptation.

"Wow," I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm as I squirm against his hold. "Real mature. What's next, you gonna drag me back to your cave?" He doesn't even dignify that with a response. He just keeps walking with a single-minded focus that makes my skin tingle until we're right outside his bedroom door.

His room because he knows I hate mine so much.

He slams the door shut with such force that the frame rattles, and whatever butterflies I had vanish into pure fury as soon as he tosses me onto his bed.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Tobias, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Me?" His chest heaves like he's barely containing himself. "What the hell is wrong with you?" I scramble to my feet, tugging my dress back into place with shaking hands.

"You'll have to elaborate. I don't speak psychopath."

"I'm done, Mills. I'm done dancing around this, done pretending we don't know exactly where this is heading." He steps toward me, closing the distance between us like it's inevitable.

"You need to stop looking at me like that, Tobias."

---