Page 39 of Sold Rejected Mate
Valerie.
When I wake up, it’s to a soft amber light and the sensation of warm water moving over my limbs, like I’m in a hot tub. I shiver against it, realizing my skin is far too hot, and when I open my eyes, there she is.
“Valerie,” I try to say, but I don’t think it comes out. Swallowing, I try again. “Valerie.”
She turns to me, eyes widening, flying up to someone else in the room. I can already feel the dark coming back, trying to pull me under again. Before it can, I reach out and take her wrist, ignoring the pain at how my skin stretches with the movement.
“Valerie,” I force out, finding her eyes and holding them, keeping my hand on her wrist. “Iremember, and I’m sorry.”
She says something back, putting her other hand on my wrist, which is excruciating, but if her touch is the last thing I feel, I’m okay with the pain.
I want to pull her into my arms. I want to say, ridiculously,I love you.
But before I can, the dark rises up and swallows me down again, making Valerie and everything else in the room disappear.
Chapter 19 - Valerie
Somehow, Lachlan manages to make being unconscious look beautiful. His strong jaw against the pillow, his hair falling into his eyes, his arms on the white sheet—it’s criminal, the way my body responds to him.
The way my body has always responded to him. His tanned skin, that focused, almost shark-like intensity in his eyes. The curve of his fist. Even the way he walks. Everything about him makes me feel like a cat wanting to rub against his legs, feel him, lure him into picking me up.
Now that Phina has declared him out of the danger zone and kept him up to speed on the healing process, I feel less panicked. For a whole day, I sit at his bedside, watching him sleep, drinking in the sight of him when he won’t know I’m looking.
Then, just when the sun is setting and I’m trying to figure out if I’ll sleep on the floor in this room again, he opens his eyes.
“Valerie,” he says, and this time, his voice sounds normal.
I reach for the water and hand it to him. Roles reversed.
He drinks greedily, and I fill it for him again before I sit down again.
“How are you feeling? Any pain?” Before he can answer, I reach into my pocket for my phone. “I’ll call Phina—”
He reaches out, puts his hand over my phone screen. When I look up and meet his eyes, there’s a serious, unhappy look in them.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks.
I know the full question. Why didn’t I tell him who I was? Why did I live in his house for a full week without revealing my identity?
Even when my throat was raw, I could have written something down for him. If I’d wanted him to know, I could have made it happen.
I drop my gaze to his hand on my phone, and instead of drawing it back, he reaches further, wrapping his hand around my wrist like he did earlier when he came to.
“I just…wanted you to already know,” I say, hating how weak it sounds. How soft and eager I am, even all these years after.
“I’m sorry,” he says, and I shake my head.
“My hair is different,” I say, “and Phina told me about the scent thing—”
“No. I mean, I am sorry about that. But Rie—Valerie—I never got to tell you. I came back for you that night. I turned around at the bottom of the hill. I spent all night looking for you in the forest.”
I stare at him, my heart thudding too hard in my chest. “You…did?”
He nods and sits up—notably without a wince. “It was an initial moment of weakness, but you knew about all that shit with my parents. I was…I panicked. And it took me three minutes too long to realize I was being an idiot.”
When I say nothing, he says, “Did I already say that I’m sorry?”
A laugh bubbles out of me, and just like that, it feels like before. All those nights in his car, the two of us alone together, none of the pressures of the outside world.
