Page 167 of Salvatore

“Fuck.” Liv flops onto her back and rakes a hand over her braided hair. “This is so messed?—”

A shuffle carries from the hall in close proximity to my room.

I tense and cock my ear toward the door. “Did you hear that?”

Liv snaps upright, zoning in on the hall. “Is someone listening?” she mouths.

“It might be the doctor.”

She slides from the bed as another footstep carries forward, then Salvatore strides into view, his face a mask of indifference, not a flicker of guilt betraying him for his blatant snooping.

“I need the two of you to remain in here for a few more minutes.” He slides his hands into his pants pockets, all casual and confident. “We’re dealing with what’s in the basement.”

“You don’t have to downplay it.” Liv rolls her eyes. “You can say you’re disposing of your mother’s dead body.”

His jaw ticks as his gaze fixes on mine. “Don’t leave this room.”

“Okay.” I nod, my stomach tied in knots at the thought of him overhearing my desperate need for children. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He shoots a warning glower at Liv, then leaves.

“He’s one scary son of a bitch.” She strolls to the door and closes it behind him, then returns to the bed. “And you know he was definitely listening, right?”

I cringe. “Why is it that I keep finding out, even though I swear to God I haven’t been doing the obligatory fucking around?”

“Oh, please. You’ve been out here earning the crown for Queen of Fuck Around and Find Out for years. The stakes have just never been this high.” She climbs back onto the mattress, her pretty brown eyes full of pity as she sits cross-legged beside me and grabs my hand. “Please don’t get upset with me, but I feel like I have to point something out.”

“Is it absolutely necessary?”

“Yeah. It’ll eat away at me if I don’t.”

“Fine.” I sigh. “Rip the Band-Aid off and just say it.”

Heavy footsteps carry from the hall as she sits taller. Grunts and groans follow, along with a cursed insult about Adena’s weight while Liv drags in a deep breath. “I saw the way he looked at you while the pool table was being desecrated. I also had afront-row seat to the psycho in his eyes while Lorenzo was here. And I’m stating for the record that there’s no way he will let you disappear with his child. I’d be surprised if he lets you disappear at all.”

My body flushes, the heated reaction a blinding red flag.

Salvatore’s potential to be controlling shouldn’t work like catnip. And it definitely shouldn’t compute as a dreamy form of protection.

Nope.

Not at all.

“Do you understand where I’m coming from?” she asks.

I do, but I want this conversation to be over. Forallof it to,poof,disappear.

“I get it.” I burrow farther under the covers, faking a yawn while a cell vibrates in my vicinity.

Liv digs into her jeans to retrieve it, a smile curving her lips as she reads her screen.

“Remy?” I ask.

She nods. “He said we can come out. They’re ordering food… straight after manhandling a dead body. And people say my morbid lifestyle is weird.”

“Maybe you two are a match made in heaven after all.”

She snickers. “Do you feel like club sandwiches?”

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