Page 127 of Finlay

“Indeed. After Matt, I decided relationships weren’t for me. I didn’t want anything more than a one-night stand. I thought I was happy like that, but in reality I was damn lonely.”

“And then you met Harlow?”

“And then I met Harlow.” Bailey had a goofy grin on his face. “He walked in and turned all my preconceived notions about relationships on their heads. So, naturally, I ran away.”

“You what?”

“You heard me,” he said shortly. “We kissed in a club one night. The Closet, actually. And then I avoided him for six months.”

“Goodness,” I said, recalling something Finn had once told me. “Don’t demons have fated mates?”

“Yup.” Bailey shook his head sadly. “I didn’t know it at the time, of course, but it fucking killed Harlow to stay away from me. All I knew was that he was too beautiful and bright to be weighed down by a loser like me.” He shot me a crooked grin before I could protest. “Don’t worry, I know that’s not true now. Harlow’s spent years erasing Matt’s narrative from my self-belief system.”

Something Finn had been doing for me too. “I take it you got together eventually though.”

“Yeah. We became friends first, and then Harlow managed to sneak under my guard. It wasn’t an easy journey though. I fucked everything up completely before I realised I was being a muppet. I let Matt’s views colour my thinking for so long that I threw away the best thing to ever happen to me.”

“I’m sorry,” I said genuinely. “Having been in your shoes, I can see how easily that could happen.”

“You’re not thinking of leaving Finn, right?”

“Not at all, but…” I inhaled deeply, letting the crisp winter air settle me. “But it was hard letting him close. It’s not too much of a leap to see how you came to the decision to end things with Harlow.”

“I fucked it up so badly, but it wasn’t the worst mistake I made.”

“What was?”

“Not encouraging him to take me as a mate. I got caught up in an incident with another supe and…I died.”

I shook my head, certain I must’ve misheard him. “You died?”

“Yep.” Bailey smiled sadly. “Like, properly died. I woke up in Hell and Harlow was left to find my body up here.”

“Holy shit.” I rubbed at my chest. “That’s awful. He must’ve gone to pieces.”

“He did. Lost control completely. His brothers had to kill him repeatedly just to stop him burning the world down.”

I thought back to the cheerful man who’d greeted me with such warmth and generosity. “Fuck, I’m so sorry. I hate that you both went through that.”

“Me too,” he sighed. “Obviously it all worked out in the end, given I’m here, but Harlow and his brothers had to battle their way into Hell before I was saved. He mated me right there and then, knowing it’d either bring me back or kill him too.”

My vision went misty. “That’s some epic love right there.”

“It is. And it almost didn’t work. Many others helped bring me back to earth.”

“I’m glad it did work.”

“Me too,” he said. “But the point of my story is, it was because of me that we waited. It was my fault Harlow had nightmares every night for the next year.”

“You couldn’t have known you’d be killed.”

“No, but I could’ve accepted Harlow as my mate earlier.” He stopped and faced me. “I was waiting because Matt had fucked me up more than I’d realised. I’d created all these bullshit reasons we should wait, and it almost cost us both everything.”

He sighed before continuing. “What I’m saying is, if you know Finn is the one for you, don’t be frightened of it.What happened with Matt isn’t going to happen with Finn. You deserve happiness as much as everyone else. Maybe even more so.”

“It’s just so permanent,” I confessed. “What if he gets tired of me?”

“He won’t,” Bailey said firmly. “That’s not how a mating bond works. Besides, Matt’s taken so much from you, Chester. Are you going to let him take Finn too?”

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