Page 33 of Midnight Star

I shake my head, a knot forming in my stomach. “This isn’t love,” I tell him. “It’s infatuation. It’s notreal.”

“Itisreal,” he insists. “You’re just scared. I get it. This place makes everyone scared. But I can protect you. If you let me in, I can make you happy. I promise.”

Wow. This went from zero to a hundred so quickly that it’s giving me whiplash.

“Stop andlistento me,” I say sharply, holding up a hand. “I’m sorry for leading you on, but I don’t feel the same way about you. I wanted to, but I don’t. And that’s not going to change. Ever.”

Especially not afterthis.

His expression hardens, the hurt in his eyes givingway to something darker. “You don’t mean that,” he says. “You’re just saying it because of Aerix.”

Heat floods my cheeks. “This has nothing to do with Aerix.”

“Really?” His laugh is sharp and bitter. “Is that why you can barely look at me during our swimming lessons? Because you’re too busy thinking abouthim?”

“That’s not?—“

“I see the way you look after he feeds from you,” he continues, stepping even closer. “How you get all dreamy-eyed and distant. Did you let him kiss you, too? Did you go to his bed with him? Let him…”

He trails off, as if he can’t bring himself to say it, and I freeze as I think about how close things got with Aerix earlier.

How close Iwantedthings to get.

“We have to do what they want.” I narrow my eyes at him, challenging him. “You know that as well as I do. Unless you and Cierra haven’t?—”

“Cierra doesn’t get fully intimate with her pets,” he interrupts, and I don’t push for more, since I have no interest in knowing what Jake does and doesn’t do with Princess Cierra. “And from what I’ve heard, neither does Aerix.”

I flinch, since judging by how Aerix acts around me, I assumed he gotfully intimatewith Victoria and Sophia. Although now that I think about it, I’ve never discussedmy sessions with Aerix in detail with the other girls. I just made assumptions and left it at that.

“You have, haven’t you?” The hurt swirling in Jake’s eyes turns to rage. “You’vesleptwith him. All this time when you were with me, you’ve also been withhim.”

“I haven’t slept witheitherof you!” I reach for a small rake and hold it by my side, my grip tight around its handle. “And you don’t get to talk to me like that. You don’t get to act like you own me.”

He stares at me, disbelief written all over his face as he glances down at the rake. “You’d hurt me?” he asks. “After everything we’ve been through together?”

“You. Don’t. Know me,” I say through gritted teeth. “And I don’t love you.”

“I do know you. And I’m trying to protect you,” he insists. “He’s using you, Zoey. They all are. But I actually care about you. I love you. Maybe you don’t believe me now, but you will soon. I promise.”

He reaches for my wrist, his hand outstretched, and every single warning bell in my body blares like a siren.

“Don’t touch me,” I say, but he doesn’t listen. He just continues to reach for me, his fingers getting closer…

And before I realize what I’m doing, I swing the rake, the tines catching his forearm and leaving behind three shallow scratches that well up with blood.

Zoey

Jake stumbles back,staring at his arm in shock.

“What the hell, Zoey?” he yells, his voice trembling with a mix of anger and disbelief.

My heart pounds as I stare at the blood trickling down his skin and at the rake I used to do it.

“I told you not to touch me,” I say, my voice steadier than I feel. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just… reacted.”

“If you didn’t want to hurt me, then maybe you shouldn’t have broken up with me and attacked mewith a garden rake,”he says, although somehow, his anger softens again, and he lowers his scratched-up arm. “But I understand. You’re scared. You don’t trust me yet. But once you settle in here, we can fix this and get back on track.”

“Wow,” I say slowly, not lowering the rake. “Are you completely delusional?”

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