Page 90 of Claimed
“I thought you said you only called her.” Caine’s voice is tight from behind me.
T turns his head. “I did.”
The woman smirks. “We were already at the airport.”
Caine stops breathing. “We?”
“Everyone decent? Ish?” The voice is a pretty musical soprano as a dark haired woman fills the doorway, a petite blonde at her side.
Where the blonde looks small, almost childlike, the brunette is curvy and thick in all the right places. Her eyes are a luminous, nearly white blue and her tan cheeks hold freckles like little sprinkles in the dimness.
She peers at me and I peer at her.
The silence is tight. Tense. Even Tanner and the woman is his lap have gone still.
The woman in the doorway leans to the side and she glances past me. “Hey, Caine.”
He sits up at my side, but does not put an arm around me. Does not hold me. Or touch me. “Lilah,” he breathes.
The name is like ice inside me, freezing the warmth that had recently filled it. The brief hint of joy.
I look at her again, seeing the pretty face, the easy affection in her eyes for him.
Pulling the blanket tighter around me, I drop my eyes to my lap, wishing they would all go so I can get dressed. So I can leave.
“Nisha, baby, let’s let Onyx and Caine get dressed, okay?”
“Yeah, of course.”
They slip off the bed and I hunch my shoulders. Soon the door closes. Blood roars in my ears. I can’t do anything but stare at my lap. At the weave of the thick blanket.
“Onyx.” Caine’s voice is soft. “I didn’t ask any of them to come. You need to know that.”
My head bobs, but I can’t look at him. Can’t see the affection in his eyes for her.
I thought I could. I hoped I could deal with it. Learn about him and be in his life. See if there was a place for me in it.
“Onyx, don’t.” Caine’s voice is harder now. Gruffer.
“Don’t what, Caine?” I whisper as I scoot over to the other side of the bed.
I need clothes.
I can’t be naked with him right now. Not with her so close by.
“Don’t turn away from me because of this,” he says behind me. “I didn’t plan any of this. You have to know that.”
Inside, I know he’s right.
But all I can see is Lilah’s face. All I can hear is his voice saying he loves her.
“I’m going to shower and get dressed,” I say, already moving to the door. “Please don’t come in.”
Stepping into the room, I close and lock the panel and he never says a word.
Chapter 34
Caine
