Page 44 of Heart Sick Hate

She quirks an eyebrow. “Says the guy who hates me.”

Hates her. Wants her. Needs her.

I’m going to fucking drown in her.

“Doesn’t mean I’m blind. A man would have to be dead to not be attracted to you. And even then…”

“Gross.”

I shrug. “Just saying. You’re twenty-three, hot, badass. I doubt you haven’t had any offers.”

“I have.” She reaches for her water and takes a hesitant sip.

Even if I’m the one who made the comment, something about her confirmation makes me pause. I’m not sure why I even care. It’s not like she let anyone touch her before I did.

And I shouldn’t touch her either.

I don’t fuck virgins. I know better.

I should walk away and let someone else take it before this goes sideways. If ring girls who work for me are a bad idea, taking Echo’s virginity is a hundred times worse. But ever since finding out she’s only ever been mine, it’s all I can focus on.

And not just because I could be the first man to mark her. But because I can’t help thinking her purity is the key to uncovering all the dark secrets of Echo Slater.

She doesn’t make sense. Her half-light, half-dark personality. Her edge and her softness. She doesn’t talk about her past before Ryan found her, but I know she’s been through some shit. And I have no doubt it ties to the reason she’s never let a man touch her.

“You can tell me.” I lower my voice.

She’s chewing the inside of her cheek, and I don’t know why it’s unsettling that she’s anxious right now when she always is. Something about this moment is different.

“You just want to know why so you can use it against me.”

“You’re the one who came to me, remember?” I lean in a little closer and get a hit of her lavender scent. “You didn’t have to tell me you were a virgin. You could havejust asked me to fuck you. But you didn’t. You told me the truth because you wanted me to know it.”

I can’t help but brush her bare thigh with the back of my hand before backing up and crossing my arms over my chest.

“I need to know why you haven’t let anyone touch you.”

Desperately. Because the more I push and the more she shuts down, I need to know what makes those walls fly up around her.

“Maybe I’m saving myself.”

“If that were the case, you’d be having this conversation on your wedding day with your husband, not right now with his brother.”

“Maybe I’d rather do it with someone ofmychoosing.”

Why does that make my stomach twist? My temples throb? Her comment means she chose me, for some godforsaken reason.

“Stop avoiding the question.”

“You want to know why I’m a virgin, Crew?” She leans in, a little angry, and a tad magnetic because her irritation is what draws her to me, even if I’m sure she wishes it would push me away.

“Yes.”

“Because when I was twelve my mother tried to trade my virginity for drugs.” Her voice cracks, and the hard shell she’s perfected falters. Whatever I thought she’d say isn’t that, and my fingers clench at the single sentence. “Only, I realized what was happening and stabbed him in the nuts before he got a chance. And do you know what they did? They locked me up for it. Because it doesn’tmatter what a man does,I’mthe one who was crazy. They committed me—at twelve—for trying to protect myself. And my mom did nothing to stop it.”

Gripping the chair behind her, my sight darkens. We’re in a tunnel and the white blonde in her hair is all I see. Those golden eyes breaking as she fights back the sheen starting to build. My fingers itch for the blood of the man who did this to her, and if I thought I was protective before, there’s no comparison as I watch her blink back tears now.

“That’s when my father found me.Savedme, if you want to call it that. Doesn’t really matter. My mom OD’d and when the state looked for my next of kin, he learned I existed. And he took me far away from there—from everything. I’ll always owe him for that.”

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