REED
"I, Asher Scott, reject you, Reed Jackson, as my mate."
The words landed in the silence like something dropped from a great height.
"And from today henceforth, nothing bonds us with each other."
I didn't move nor could I breathe.
The lamp on my desk was still warm. Asher's scent still lived in my sheets. The indent of his body was still pressed into the mattress beside me. Two minutes ago his hands had been in my hair and his mouth had been against my throat and I had held him like I was trying to memorize him without knowing that was exactly what I was doing.
Two minutes.
Rejection!?
The word didn't make sense. My brain kept picking it up and turning it over and putting it back down because it had no place to go. It didn't fit anywhere. Not in this room, not on this night and not from his mouth.
"Asher." My voice came out wrong. Scraped hollow like something had already reached inside my chest and dragged its nails down the walls. "Stop joking."
He didn't laugh.
