Cullen offers his right hand for me to take with my right hand.
I’m not in the mood for this bullshit chivalry stuff.
I grab Cullen’s hand with my left hand.
Blood and all.
He doesn’t even flinch.
In fact, he grips my left hand a little bit tight.
“Ouch,” I whisper.
“It’ll help with the bleeding,” he says. “Why don’t you lead the way to your room, love?”
I can feel the intense lust coming from Maz and Birdie.
As I walk, I can also feel Maz and Birdie staring at me.
I look back.
Maz mouths to meHoly fuck!
Birdie then mouthsThat’s Cullen Doyle!
I can kind of understand the point of the shock.
Kind of.
We step into the bedroom and Cullen kicks the door shut behind him.
“I’m over here,” I say.
“Shared room,” he says. “Unacceptable.”
“Because I’m anHeir, right?”
Cullen freezes and turns to face me. “It’s more than that, Jaci. Yes, anHeirdeserves their own space. Living like this is just…”
“What?” I ask. “You realize all theThornslive like this, right? This is an actual dorm, Cullen. I don’t understand the surprise. Who makes these rules, huh? That all the girls…. the women… have to live like this. Huh?”
“You’re thinking too much at once, love,” Cullen says. “Maybe it’s all the blood loss.”
“Maybe it is,” I say. “Or maybe you’ve never met someone like me. Maybe someone like me has never been to a place like this. I don’t just fall in line and listen, Cullen. That’s not how my life has been. And I don’t do well with secrets. I guess I come from a powerful family, right? That’s why I’m anHeir? Yet I don’t know anything else about that.”
“Again, love, too much at once,” Cullen whispers.
“My left hand is cut, not cut off,” I say. “I can still make a fist and swing. And I have a perfectly good right hand.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“If I am? If I feel I have to?”
“Then I would really believe you’ve lost too much blood.”
“Are you going to help bandage my hand or what?”
“There’s just one thing I have to do before we get started,” Cullen says.