Page 91 of If This is Love

Your seed is poison.

My seatbelt was still on.

You reap what you sow, and your seed is poison.

Did all of that even happen?

I glanced at the digital clock on the dash. It was noweightuntil ten, only two minutes since I checked it just before pulling into the driveway, and I wasn’t so sure any of that just happened.

I looked at the porch again, squinting hard at the dark corner where I thought Abraham had emerged from. The outline of a man leaning against the porch post was still there.

Did I just imagine all of that?

You reap what you sow, and your seed is poison.

I glanced down and saw I was holding my phone just like I had moments ago… or at least what I thought was moments ago. It was starting to seem like I slipped out of my own damn mind just now, but those awful words wouldn’t stop hissing at me.

You reap what you sow, and your seed is poison.

Still holding my phone, I shoved out of the car, my feet so wobbly in my heels that I had to sit down in the driver’s seat again immediately and remove them. I left them in the car and bumped the door shut with my hip, making a shaky circle to turn toward my house. I stared at the figure in the dark corner and crept forward.

When I was about two yards from the front porch, I turned on my phone’s flashlight and pointed it at the darkened corner.

It wasn’t Abraham.

It wasn’t even a man. It wasn’t even human.

It was a rug that I’d bought weeks ago for my bedroom, but it had been on backorder. Apparently, it got delivered while I was out.

All the breath drained from me, and my shoulders fell so fast that I nearly crumpled to the ground. Inane laughter rattled out of me, followed by a hitch in my breath and then a sob.

I had no idea what in the world was wrong with me. This was utter absurdity. I was so foggy and disoriented that I felt like I couldn’t even trust my own mind right now.

The adrenaline continued to flee my body, ushering in more shakes and shivers, and I was such a hot mess by the time I pushed through the front door that I slumped to the floor immediately after I managed to spin the lock and throw the bolt. Jax was all over my lap, whining and whimpering, licking my face, and my hands were shaking out of control, but I was clutching my phone.

I was clutching my phone, but I couldn’t even get up off the floor, let alone change clothes and get back in my damn car to drive back over to Gabe’s. I was so incapacitated I may as well have been drunker than happy-go-lucky Luke on he and Chloe’s big night. But I was still clutching my phone. So that meant I wasn’t too incapacitated to make a phone call.

And this was a phone call I had to make. I couldn’t text something like this, not after the absolutelyperfectnight Gabe and I just had. I had to speak to him. He needed to hear my voice. This wasn’t atext messagesort of thing.

I couldn’t even type anyway.

My thumb was shaking so hard it missed three times before tapping on Gabe’s name in the call log, and I had to let it ring on speaker because I was too weak to lift the phone.

Your seed is poison. You reap what you sow, and your seed is poison.

23

GABE

ALGIERS POINT, NEW ORLEANS

Ididn’t know how I managed to mentally talk my dick back under control as I put Ruth back together after what happened in my kitchen, but miraculously, I did. I kissed her a few more times, and then she was off to change clothes so she could come right back.

And that meant I probably had fifteen minutes or less before she orsomebodywould be showing up at my house for all of us to gobackout—I waswaytoo old for this shit—so I bolted to my room to take care of… you know, everything. If I didn’t take care of it right now, my cock would be a hell of a lot less cooperative all night long, and I had only this tiny little window to deal with him.

I practically tore off my suit jacket, tie, and shirt. Next it was my pants. The ones that were now smeared with Ruth’s arousal—andmiraculouslynone of mine. And I didn’t do anything fucked up and creepy with them, but I sure as fuck thought about licking them clean just so I could taste her.

The only reason I didn’t was, after all that, I had a solid reason to believe the time was coming soon when I’d be able to tap that tempting nectar right from the source.

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