We lay on the couch. Piety was warm against me, and I rubbed my chin against her hair. It was soft as the silk nightshirt she still wore. I knew more about silk after a few days with her than I’d learned in my entire life.

“Is Astra going to walk in here and find me laying naked on her couch?” I asked.

We had a throw covering us, or mostly. But I really didn’t want her best friend finding us like this.

“Not a chance. She’s with a guy.” Piety stretched against me, and the feel of her sleek body rubbing against me like that had my cock stirring. I was tempted to roll her over and take her again, but things had to be said first.

Before I could lose my nerve, I shifted around on the couch and pushed up onto my elbow. Her eyes were big and sleepy, her face still flushed from sex.

My heart clenched, just looking at her.

“We should talk.”

Her smile was soft, sadness clinging to it. “That’s what we’ve been doing. You came up here to talk.”

“No.” Stroking my thumb over her lower lip, I sighed. “I’m serious. There’s…more. I should have told you this before.”

Her eyes cooled slightly, and I braced myself for the rejection I suspected was coming.

“If this is about my parents,” she said, voice level, almost…gentle. “I already know what you did. I mean, was I not going to find out?”

“What I did?” I asked.

Well, that answered a lot of questions. I’d spent the past week wondering what they told her. Her calls had gone from worried to agitated and then to…careful. There had been no emotion in the last message she had left for me and that careful lack of emotion had managed to convey quite a bit.

I’d known her parents wouldn’t have been honest and confessed to what they’d done. Considering how things already were between them and their daughter, they’d be particularly careful about how they handled this.

And now here I was, throwing a wrench in it.

“Come off it, Kaleb.” She eased away from me and sat up. “I understand. I really do. I was trying to get things together to help you out anyway, and if I had been upfront and honest, you wouldn’t have been so desperate. But don’t try to make this into anything other than what it was.”

She’d been what…?

I pushed that aside, climbing off the couch and grabbing my jeans. They were still wet, but I pulled them on anyway.

Piety had smoothed her shirt down and now sat studying me with studied casualness. “We can get past it. We really can. But, just…don’t.”

Some of the frustration I was feeling dissolved.

She’d let it go, I realized. She would let it all go. Her heart was amazing. I went to her and cupped her face. “I’m losing a little bit more of myself to you all the time,” I said against her lips.

I thought about staying quiet, just keeping it all inside.

A small selfish part of me thought I should do just that, enjoy what time I had, while I could.

But she’d never been anything but honest with me.

I could do no less with her.

“I don’t know what they told you I did, but your parents paid me to leave town, Piety. They said if I signed the annulment papers and left, agreeing not to talk to you, they’d give me money – cash. It was everything I needed to take care of Camry.”

Shock danced across her features.

Here it comes…now she’ll push me away…

“What?”

“Their lawyer came to see me,” I said, that familiar feeling of exhaustion bearing down on me again. Sighing, I tugged her in and kissed her forehead, then let her go, turning away to pace over to the window. The storm had blown over, but it was still raining, a cold, steady drizzle that blotted everything out. Staring into the rain, I said, “You and Astra were gone. This lawyer shows up…Stuart Rushmore.”

Even his name disgusted me, but I kept my voice flat.

“He came here and told me that he wanted to talk to me, said he could help me.” Turning back to her, I shrugged. “He said he was a friend of yours. It wasn’t until I’d already let him in that he clarified and said he was actually your parents’ lawyer. Then he laid out the deal. And I…took it.”

“That’s why you haven’t returned my calls.” She swallowed, her gaze falling to the floor.

“I felt ashamed and I’d given my word. It means something to me. I don’t have much, but that’s one of the few things I do have.” I looked around her loft, evidence of how little it had meant in the end. “Or had. I’m here now.”

“And why are you here?”

“Because. There’s nothing left. I spend the last money to buy a ticket back here.” That sounded…awful.

I then told her what happened with Camry, and she came to me, wrapping her arms around me. I hugged her back, desperately. “I’ve messed it all up, and everything’s just fucked. But all I can think about is you and how much I miss you and how much I wish I hadn’t left. So, I came back, praying you would see me and understand. Forgive me. I know all this sound terrible selfish, and I supposed it is, but you’re all I have left. My last hope.”

She eased back, staring up at me for the longest time.

I felt frozen, unable to do anything.

Then, slowly, she kissed my forehead. Each of my cheeks. My chin.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve been so angry at you these past few weeks, and it wasn’t totally your fault. It was my parents manipulating you like they’ve done so many others. And I should have known.”

“Don’t apologize to me.” I stroked my hand up her back, my fingers passing over each bump of her spine. “I made the fucked up decision to take the deal and leave.”

She sighed and tucked herself in closer. “What are you going to do about Camry?”

“I don’t know. I…don’t think I can do anything.” Misery settled inside, and I wanted to pound something, but the anger and hurt were useless. Giving in to them solved nothing. “I’ve given up everything for her, sacrificed most of my life to take care of her. And now this…” I shook my head, unable to put into words the sheer helplessness I felt.

“We’re going to find a way.”