Page 165 of Coveted

Something fundamental in her seems to relax. Her fingers soften as she drifts off to sleep.

She’s really going to be okay.

My shoulders loosen a little, but I don’t stop monitoring the machines and counting her breaths per minute. That’s not who I am.

I fixate. I’m too much.

Maybe I can learn to tame my more invasive tendencies, but who I am in my heart is set in stone.

And engraved into that stone?

Sadie Marlowe’s name.

In the pristine, dreamlike room, I try to imagine time has stopped.

Because in this moment, she’s alive, I’m holding her small, soft hand, and she wants me here.

For once, I won’t ask for more.

CHAPTER 43

Sadie

Isee him on the camera feed before he knocks.

Tall, intimidating, attractive.

The man who saved my life.

As I sit in my bedroom chewing my lip and staring at my phone screen, nerves come rushing in.

Lucan and I haven’t been properly alone together since I was in hospital. Even then, we didn’t talk much because I mostly slept.

Looking at him now, I realize he’s become so much more than just intimidating and attractive to me. I’ve experienced his diligence and tenderness as he watched over me in the hospital room. I’ve seen whole new sides of him.

The trouble is, I’m unsure where we stand.

Over the past two weeks, whenever I tried to talk about us, he brought up another topic instead.

Since Halloween, Lucan has continued protecting me, just in a different way than usual. He’s chased the press and nosy students away from me, and kept my sole interview at the Ember Falls police station brief and to the point.

We’ve hung out together at The Bindery for coffee, the library to study, and that’s it. No sleepovers or dates.

No kisses.

No sweet words or spicy ones.

Not a whisper of intimacy at all.

He’s been a perfect, respectful, hands-off gentleman with me, which concerns me the most. It’s so unlike him.

What if this conversation goes badly? What if he’s changed his mind about wanting to be with me?

Maybe he’s been waiting until I recovered from my injuries to let me down gently.

He knocks. On the video feed on my phone, he stares directly into the camera. Even through a lens, his intense gaze makes my stomach flutter.

Putting down the phone, I go to let him in.