Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
He laughed and then gripped me at my waist, pulling my body against his and he bent down, kissing my lips and making me nearly moan.
His lips were soft, biteable, and I wanted to spend the rest of my night exploring them, but he pulled away.
“You wolf has made a good point. If I want to earn her name, if I want anything from you, I need to prove it.” Rowan squeezed my hips, and I felt my eyes flutter from the slight pain.
I was learning things about my likes, my needs, in this life I never explored in my last. I was a little lost in thought as Rowan stepped back.
I tried to grab at him but my hands met air.
I shook my head to refocus, and I bit my lip to stop myself from doing something I would regret.
I coughed and ran a hand through my hair.
“What are you doing here?” I finally met his eyes.
They were still full of need and I needed a little space from him.
I turned away from him and grabbed some actual pajamas.
I turned and looked over my shoulder at him. “Do you mind?”
His smile was roguish as he shook his head. “Nope, I don’t mind.”
I rolled my eyes and faced away from him, pulling my t-shirt over my head, and pulling on my tank top.
“I’m going to need you to turn around. I need to change my bottoms.” The flash of need nearly stopped my breath, but I spun my finger in a circle and he reluctantly turned.
I slipped my shorts off and slid on my jogging pants.
I pulled my hair back into a messy bun. “So, why are you here?”
Rowan turned to look back at me. “I needed to see you.”
I felt the words melt my insides a fraction, but I bit the inside of my lip to refocus myself. “See me? About what?”
Rowan stepped aside as I slid past him to go back to my dinner. I wasn’t going to let him interrupt my plans for the night.
Rowan’s fingers trailed down my arm as I passed him, but he followed me as I kept moving. “Things are happening behind the scenes. And I wanted to talk to you about it all, plus…” He trailed off as I sank on to my couch.
I pulled out the meals I got today. “Have you eaten?”
“No.” He sat down as I gestured.
“Pick one.” He stared up at me and reached for a dinner. I grabbed one of my own and sat down in the chair. His eyebrows rose, but he didn’t comment on the space I created between us. I dug into the cold meal, not caring enough to heat it, and then I looked up. “What’s been happening?”
Rowan finally stopped staring at me and dug into his own food.
“Your father has been able to move things around. You now have access to his accounts. This way, it looks like you inherited all of his money.” Rowan paused.
“We need you to go out and start spending. New clothes, new furniture, anything that will catch Brandon’s and Vince’s attention. ” I nodded.
“And how am I supposed to do that?” I tilted my head.
“Here.” He pulled out a card I recognized well.
“Have you been to the Agora to see him?” I reached out and took my father’s bank card.
Rowan nodded. “I had a lot to discuss with him, and years to apologize for.” I just nodded. “He gave me a letter from Cassie to give to you.” He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and handed it over.
I felt tears spring to my eyes. “Cass.” I smiled as I put the letter on the table.
“You aren’t going to read it?” His voice was soft.
“I’ll read it when I’m alone.” I flicked my eyes to his, and he deflated a little. But I had to create space. After everything. After today. I needed to create this space between us.
“You haven’t emailed me. You have been ignoring me and I’m just confused.” He started, but I laughed.
“Seriously?” He was trying to turn this on me.
“What?” Rowan’s eyes snapped up from his meal.
My anger spiked so fast, I nearly fell when I stood. “Get out.” My voice held the venom I felt.
“What?” He stood.
“If you are going to fucking sit here and blame me when you are the one that has ignored all of my calls, my emails, my texts, you are going to fucking blame me. Get the fuck out of my apartment.” Rowan stared at me for a minute before he stood.
He pulled out his phone and started to hit buttons.
“Did you hear me?” I snarled, and he turned his phone screen to me.
“Look.” I stared at his face before my eyes flicked to his phone. It was our text chat. I read through the screen and stopped.
“That isn’t right.” I pulled out my phone and selected our chat log and showed him.
“What the fuck is going on?” He pulled my phone to his face. I stared at his phone. Messages he sent that I didn’t receive. I pulled his phone out of his hand and clicked the call log. Nothing. All the calls I made were missing.
“How is this possible?” I looked up. Rowan was still looking at my texts.
“You texted me?” I just nodded.
“Of course I did. I also called. I felt pathetic after a week of being ignored, but I had questions and you were answering my emails.” I handed back his phone.
“Wait…you emailed me? My secure email?”
I nodded. “Yes.” I nodded. “You told me to. So I did. But I had a question that I needed an answer to about breaching a security wall and you never emailed me back. So I texted you, and I called, and then I just stopped because obviously you didn’t want to answer me.
” I placed my fork down and went to grab my computer.
I came back out to a very confused Rowan, but anger entered his eyes. “What?”
I walked over and clicked into my email.
I went to the sent folder and quickly counted.
Twelve emails…I sent twelve fucking emails to this man over a course of a month.
I shook my head in disgust. I never counted, but seeing them all there without even a one-word reply made me feel fucking weak and pathetic.
You are not pathetic. Megan came out and laid down in the clearing by Nix, who I realized had been keeping the flame on the candle, changing my scent, going.
Nor are you weak. This is obviously a misunderstanding. Nix looked away from the candle. He seemed hurt when he thought you hadn’t contacted him.
Megan snorted. And he seemed very interested when you dropped your towels. Both of my wolves chortled a laugh.
But I turned the laptop around, shoving it at him. He handed me back my phone and sank to the sofa, and started clicking through all the emails. I could tell he was reading them because when he got to the last, he winced.
I will say I hadn’t been very nice in the last email. I was angry and honestly hurt. He had promised me to help, had hinted that he liked me, and then he fucking disappeared. Proving once again, men can not be trusted.
“I never saw these.” I rolled my eyes.
“Look. If it was just our call logs, and texts missing, sure, I could believe that Vince or someone hacked both of our phones. But I even texted and called you from my hidden phone. You hadn’t saved the number, so you should have received that one.
But even if you hadn’t, you said the first day that your email was secure.
More importantly, mine is because of everything on this computer, not one notification about a breach.
But obviously there were no emails from you. ”
Rowan looked up, and I saw the anger back. “I know.”
I tossed my hands in the air. “Well then, leave.” I waited for a second and turned away. “Please.” My voice cracked as I said the last word. Like it caught in my throat.
“No, wait.” Rowan put my computer down. “I meant I know my email is secure. Our phones were probably hacked, and that means I’ll need to clean them, but my email, I should have received the emails.
” I turned and raised my hands again. “But I didn’t.
” He came closer and grabbed my hands. “I swear to you, Amy. I haven’t heard from you since I left the night your mom came over.
” He closed his eyes. “I was stupid, and I thought that almost kissing you in the kitchen would show my interest in you, but then it was radio silence. I texted, I called and nothing. I had waited, thinking you were just busy, but the longer we went, the longer something felt wrong.” He pulled me closer.
“At first, I thought you weren’t interested in me like I was with you, but it didn’t sit right.
I thought about emailing you but I was afraid after it being so long with nothing, you would take it wrong, so I came here tonight.
” He swallowed. “And then I heard you crying.” He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead on mine.
“And then you dropped your towels, and I lost my hold, but I swear to you, I’m not lying.
” Then he kissed me, really kissed me, and the world fell away.