Page 88 of Burned

She knows me too well. “How much? How much did you tell him?”

My body goes still.

Cass sighs. “Rin.”

I pull away. “I don’t know how much. Okay? I blocked our conversation out.”

Lies.

I remember every word I said, the feeling of Lucian holding me in bed as I said them, his body tensing around mine as if it were turning to stone.

I only told him the part about the bedroom, the part I’m not going to tell Cass. Two of the most important people each have half of my shame. That’s enough.

It’s already too much.

I didn’t tell him about that night. Or what happened. What he did to me or didn’t do.

Here’s the real problem, now…the question that has been haunting me ever since Cass said Caleb pre-recorded a message.

He knows something about me that I don’t. Not for sure.

Did Caleb do more to me than I let myself remember?

Was I really a virgin that night I answered Lucian’s request, selling my innocence to save my family?

Or was that already taken from me?

No longer mine to give.

Lucian doesn’t need to go digging up a body to stab it into a second death. And it doesn’t really matter now. Not really.

Our relationship is already built on a shaky tower of lies and betrayal.

What’s one more?

I’m not going to try and remember.

Her voice breaks, forcing me to reply. “You have to tell him everything.”

“No.” I shake my head.

“Yes.”

“You didn’t see his face when I told him the part I did.” I pull back, wiping my face with the sleeve of my sweater. “He’ll look at me differently.”

Cass’s expression shifts into something fierce and tender. “He will.”

“Cass.” My chest cracks.

“He will,” she repeats. “Because now he’ll know more of you. That changes things. It should. But different does not mean worse.”

She squeezes my hand. “Different can mean closer.”

I stare at her. “What if he can’t touch me without thinking of it?”

Cass snorts. Actually snorts.

It is so unexpected, I blink. “What?”