Page 75 of Claimed
“No. I will say this because you need to hear it.” She leans away from Amoret. “How many women have you slept with in the last four months? Since I came to Lock Lake?”
“You don’t want that answer.”
“Fifty? More?” she asks.
“Yes,” I grind out.
There is no reaction. No flinch. “And yet, you won’t add Onyx to that list, Caine. Why?”
“Lilah—”
“No, Caine. Answer the damn question,” she snaps, gold shimmers piercing her sky-blue eyes. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” I retort, voice tight. “Are you happy? I don’t know why. She wants me. I want her. It’s simple. Any other time I would be fucking her into a wall.”
“I know you’re trying to shock me by saying that, Caine. But you forget, Nisha is one of my best friends. I know how gentle you are with the women you care about.” My heart thunders. “When you helped her and Tanner, it took days for her memory to come back after the heat. But she said you were careful. Gentle. So again, Caine, why haven’t you added Onyx to the list?”
“Why do you care?” I ask, voice tight. “What difference does it make?”
“Because you need to hear it. Now say it, Caine. Say it aloud.”
“Fine. I like her!” The words break from me in a torrent of frustration and pain. “She’s funny and beautiful. And fierce.” My eyes lock with Lilah’s. “But I love you.”
“I know,” she says softly. “And I love you. But you owe yourself and Onyx a chance, Caine. Stop holding on to me as a reason to push her away. I will always be your friend, but she could be so much more and you won’t give her a shot.”
My shoulders droop and I drop my head into my hand as I stare at the screen. “I don’t know how to do this, Lilah. I don’t know how to let you go and even attempt to put someone in your place.”
“You’re not giving her my place. You’re making a new one for her.” She scours my expression with those piercing blue eyes. “Start slow. Learn about her. What she likes and dislikes. See what you have in common. And what you don’t. There is chemistry there, right?”
I shiver. “Yeah.”
Her smile is radiant. “Then all you have to do is be you. She will love you as much as I do in no time.”
My lips quirk. “We are a special pair, little bird.”
She blinks rapidly and a tear tracks down her cheek. “I’ve missed that.”
“What?”
“Your calling me that.” When she opens her eyes, they are full of affection and simply her. “I will always be your little bird, Caine. Only yours. Maybe she can be your … kitten?”
“That’s Nisha’s nickname from me.”
Lilah frowns. “Pet is too obscure.” She turns her head. “Amoret? What does he call you?”
I roll my eyes and climb to my feet. “Bye, Lilah.”
Amoret’s laughter echoes hers. “I love you, Caine.”
I smile gently at her. “Love you, too, little bird.” I end the call and start to the door.
And stop.
Onyx hovers in the open doorway, her dark hair sodden around her face and her lean body wrapped in a towel. She looks at me and then looks down at her bare feet. “Sorry.” That one word is so empty it carves out my gut like an ice cream scoop. “I called for you, but you didn’t answer.”
I take a step toward her. “Everything okay?”
“No clean clothes.”
