Page 12 of Unclench Me Softly

Specifically: my nipples decide to make a guest appearance. Which is just rude, because I’m wearing a blessed linen blend that was supposed to say ethereal guide not yes, I’m lactating for your vulnerability.

“I think that’s what we all need sometimes,” I say carefully. “To... soften and release.”

His head tilts slightly. “Do you need that too?”

“Excuse me?” I ask.

“You seem like someone who holds a lot,” he says, eyes on mine. “Like you’re carrying seventeen things in your spirit backpack, but you’ve convinced yourself it’s fine because you wrapped them in positive affirmations.”

My jaw actually drops. I close it. “Did you just reverse-therapy me?”

He shrugs helplessly. “I’m sorry. I overshare. It’s like a nervous tic. I can stop.”

“I don’t want you to stop,” I say, before I can help it.

And now it’s my turn to look like I want to walk into the forest and emotionally disintegrate.

We reach his dome. The inside is half-prepared, candles scattered, bed fluffed, crystals arranged in what I hope reads as sacred geometry and not just a weird pile.

Asher steps inside and breathes. Then turns back to me. “I think I was meant to come here.”

I open my mouth to say something, anything, but I don’t get the chance.

Because from the clearing behind us comes the sound of an axe hitting wood.

Followed by a voice:

“Hey, Bliss,” Jax calls, smug and somehow topless again, “You give all the guests that kind of welcome, or just the ones who look like they cry after sex?”

Asher freezes.

I freeze.

Jax smirks.

I exhale through my nose and say, “Welcome to the Hollow.”

As soon as I escape Asher’s dome, and Jax’s smugly shirtless stare, I pull out my phone and power-walk toward the makeshift meditation deck like I’m heading into spiritual battle.

I open theGREMLIN COVEN 4EVERthread and unleash my thumbs with the righteous fury of a woman who did not sign up to be spiritually ravaged by tech bro vulnerability.

ME:

new guest arrived

early

again

why can’t emotionally damaged men ever be on time

CALLIE:

omg which one

pls tell me it’s the billionaire with the fragile little soul

i need this

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