Page 104 of Bite Me

Staying away from Dacre was my plan, and a good one, until we shared a bed a few nights ago. I’m not 100 percent certain this mystery sickness and desire comes from being scent-matches with Dacre, but I’m using my context clues. We shared a bed for a couple of nights—anything is possible at this point.

I’ve been tortured through every second we’ve spent together. Every twitch of his brow or scowl painted on his lips haunts me, down to the way his tongue felt over mine and his fingers felt between my thighs.

He texted me this morning, and I left it unanswered because this whole thing is a little embarrassing for me. What do you mean, my body is reacting to Dacre? Is this how he felt that day I was ovulating? Terrible and unable to concentrate?

“Emma . . .”

Evangeline’s bright eyes glaze over in a daze as she stares at her phone.

“Oh, no. What is it?”

“Is this . . . Where’s your phone?”

“I stopped using it because I got nonstop calls from the press about Olivia and her love life.”

With shaky hands, she shows me the headline of a new forum article.

Emma Osborne and Dacre Everhart Scent-Matches, Anon Source Reports.

I’m going to throw up this time. Who figured it out? This is the worst timing ever. Verity and Luther are going to run with this and make my life even more complicated than it is. I try to sit up as the room spins.

“Is this . . . true?” Eva asks.

“Yes. It’s true, and I promise I was going to tell you, but I had no idea how I felt about any of it yet. Things with Dacre are so complicated. We literally just started getting along, but our connection is . . . confusing and intense.”

“It’s okay.” She rubs my leg. “I get it. I mean . . . I knew you two had something going on.”

This is why I love her. Evangeline keeps secrets like oaths of blood and duty. She reminds me of Mom when she softens her voice and makes me feel as if everything will be okay.

“I don’t know what we have yet. Plus, he’s engaged.”

Her eyebrows shoot up. “What?”

“It’s contractual.”

“Oh. But you’re . . . in love with him?”

I bury my head into the comfort of her marshmallow pillow. “I don’t know.”

What is love anyway, and what does it mean in this case? How could I love someone who constantly pushes me away? Though he didn’t do that at his estate. His usual aloof sensibilities were nowhere to be found, and instead, I feel as if I got a glimpse of the true Dacre Everhart.

I keep imagining him as a child, eyes full of hope and wonder while he cooked with his grandfather, years before cooking turned into a tool for him instead of a passion.

Dacre’s family is nothing like mine, and maybe it would be different if he were cruel, if he’d never shown me that he’s been protecting me. I still have this sneaking suspicion that there’s more that he isn’t telling me.

But none of that is how I see him. There’s a gentleness about him. A calm, gentlemanly aura. When he tells me he will protect me, I believe it in every little crevice of my soul. I’ve never met someone who pushes me in all the right ways, and there’s a little urge in me that wants to push him, too, to be the best version of himself, just like he does for me.

Is that love? How does one know when they’re in love?

I didn’t even text my mom, because the fact that I can’t talk to her right now is so disappointing that I could scream. She’d know the exact right thing to say to solve all my problems.

There’s a knock at the door.

“You better not have told anyone I was in here,” I groan.

“I did . . . tell one person. But it’s not Parker nor Olivia.” She strides over to the door. “Don’t hate me, but I was out of options.”

Zant pokes his head in the door and gives a sheepish wave. I try to glare at my sister, but it’s hard from my current position, and any movement just makes that relentless pulsing worse.