A Slave to Love

Chapter 43: Emotional

I woke up feeling warm, cozy, and incredibly lazy. My head was aching and my eyes felt swollen and itchy and all I wanted to do was sleep it off. So I cuddled back closer to Blade's chest and—

My head whipped around at the thought.

There he was, sleeping peacefully with one arm slung around my waist. I took a quick look around the dark shapes and realized I was in his room. His bed. The room he didn't let anyone into. The room we'd spent all night cuddled up together in.

I slowly settled back into place so as not to wake him up, not yet ready to deal with the fallout from last night. As much as I wanted to go back to sleep and forget, the adrenaline rush from remembering last night's nightmare and waking up in his bed had me wide awake with no hope for rest or relaxation.

I couldn't wrap my mind around his reaction to asking about breaking our bond. I'd never seen him look so vulnerable and afraid before. It was strange too that it was even possible to break a bond. I was pretty sure he'd said we were stuck together until we died, but maybe he went searching for another way out since that conversation since he certainly had no interest being bonded to me and I had none for him. Maybe he'd changed his mind and didn't want to mention it to me since it seemed like a waste or it slipped his mind with all the chaos and stress in his life.

How angry he'd be, how heartbroken he'd be if you left...

I shuddered at Jill's words in my head and shoved them to some dark corner. He wouldn't be heartbroken. He might be hurt and miss me a little, mostly because of our bond, but heartbroken was a stretch. That implied he loved me and that was definitely not the case. If it was, Mona would be a distant memory by now instead of an active thorn in my side.

My eyes adjusted to the darkness of his room and in front of me I spotted a glint of metal. I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out what it was. Lifting my head carefully and squinting hard, I made out a vague shape of a ring, with a floral design possibly? It looked like there was a stone set between leaves.

Odd that he would keep a ring on his bedside table. It couldn't possibly be Mona's or else she would be wearing it and it didn't exactly seem her style, unless he was planning on giving it to her as a gift whenever she came back. It definitely wasn't his. Still weird of him to leave it out, instead of in a box or something to keep it pristine and hidden.

I was burning with curiosity, but I wasn't about to just roll over and demand to know what was up with the ring. That was rude. And no doubt he'd kick my ass for waking him up, especially to ask a silly question after we'd both been up late thanks to my meltdown.

After what felt like hours of waiting, I was restless and uncomfortable from lying there, so I rolled over carefully, keeping his arm around my waist and trying not to wake him up.

He stared right back at me.

"Holy shit!"

"Scared?" he asked with a sleepy smile, eyes heavy lidded.

"Duh! I thought you were asleep!" 

"And I thought you were asleep."

"Why am I in your room?"

He blinked at me, slowly like he was coming out of a daze. "You don't remember last night?"

"Of course I remember." How could I ever forget? I wished I could. "But why am I here?"

"I don't follow."

"You don't let anyone in your room, but you've let me in twice to sleep with you. So why is that?"

"How would you know if I had people in my room?" his eyes instantly slitted, guarded.

"Aidan told me. He said you even bitched at Mona for going into your room too. So why am I allowed in here?"