Page 105 of The Jaded Notes

I stand slowly to make my point. “You storm into my home and start with ultimatums? Bold strategy.”

She paces like a panther trapped in a glass enclosure. Her heels click against the floor.

“Don’t mock me.” Her pulse flutters beneath her words. “I won’t play the fool while you keep…companions on the side.”

“Companions?” My brows arc at her assumption, and I’ll let her stew in it for a moment. “Is that what we’re calling them now?”

Her jaw tightens. Her silence is louder than any accusation, but the flicker of something painful is behind her fury. She’s carrying someone else’s voice in her head. Not hers.

Brendan’s. Always Brendan.

Of course. Every time she talks to him, she becomes defensive, volatile, or triggered by something. Something I didn’t summon.

I close the distance, patient enough to test her resolve. “Let me guess. Things didn’t go well when you saw your brother tonight.”

She flinches. “What does that matter?”

“It matters because every time you two interact, you get like this.”

“Like what?”

“Triggered. Destructive. Ready to go to battle.” My voice dips lower, the steel beneath velvet. “So tell me, firecracker, what did he say this time?”

“This isn’t about Bren.” Her gaze flits away for half a heartbeat. “It’s about us.”

Her defiance sparks, but her pulse betrays her. It’s hammering in her veins like it’s begging me to press my thumb to her throat and hold her steady until she’s calm.

I stop inches from her, close enough to feel the heat rolling off her skin. I study her, suspicion coiled tight in my chest.

She’s not just angry. She’s haunted. And whatever she sawor heard tonight pushed her here, demanding terms like we’re writing contracts in blood instead of skin.

I’m not seeing anyone other than her, but this isn’t behavior I’d normally accept. But then again, this is the wild woman I never saw myself falling for, yet here I am.

“You want exclusivity, Livianna? Fine. But don’t mistake your ghosts for my sins. I’ve done nothing to deceive you, so you don’t get to dictate my life without admitting what’s destroying yours.”

Her eyes burn with equal parts hostility and ache. For a suspended second, I can’t tell if she’s about to confess what’s eating her up inside or kiss me hard enough to bruise.

Her lips tremble as if the truth is scratching to get out, but she swallows it back, defenses rising in its place. “I don’t need to admit anything. What I need is for you to stop acting like your rules don’t apply to you.”

I tilt my head, studying the cracks running beneath her defiance. “That’s not what you want, firecracker. What you want is for me to tell you I won’t leave you. That you’re the only one I see. Say the word, and you’ll have it.”

“You think this is a game?”

“No. I think this is a war you’re fighting against yourself, and I’m just standing in the crossfire.” I cup her chin in my palm. My thumb grazes the heat blooming over her lips. “If you want me to burn everything else down, admit you’re willing to do the same.”

“I already agreed not to be with anyone else, but I need the same from you.” Her voice wavers on the edge of command and plea, and it hits me harder than her anger ever could.

“Done. You can have exclusivity.” I let the words fall between us like a binding and irrevocable seal. But I don’t step back. “On one condition.”

Her eyes narrow. “What’s that?”

“I need all of you.”

“You have me.”

“I’m talking about birth control. No more condoms. If we lock this down, I’ll have all of you.”

For the first time tonight, she stumbles. Color drains from her face, and the unguarded truth slips out.