Page 36 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
Funny he should think me so unenlightened. Aunt Aylie and Uncle Neel complained I was over-educated.
“I wasn’t faking anything,” Briar said after another weighty silence.
I wished for spontaneous deafness, twinges rippling through my heart.
“The start of our relationship was rigged, I’ll admit that. But the rest—everything between us—that was real. My feelings for you are genuine, Amy.”
Isowanted to believe him. But I didn’t.
“You expect me to buy that you weren’t using me to please my uncle? That you don’t care what he thinks of you?”
“Of course, I care what he thinks of me. And your father.”
My gut spasmed.Daddy played no part in this sordid mess!
“But I’d never use you, Amy. I care more about whatyouthink of me.” He stroked my arm, giving me chills despite everything. “You, who’s so funny, witty, and beautiful—”
“Quit it with the compliments on my beauty. That’s how I know you’re full of shit. Nobody looks at me and thinks beautiful.”
Briar’s brows leapt. “Comeon, Amy.”
The bitterness of his herbal remedy suddenly refilled my mouth.
“This is why I waited so long to approach you romantically.”
“And how long has this oh-so-romantic pact been a thing? How long have you been waiting around for me?”
Briar frowned at my derision. “Years. I waited years because you just weren’t ready to be loved.”
Of all the ludicrous things said about me, this was number one! I’d been ready for love my whole life, reading fairy tales, then love stories like a junkie!
He doesn’t know me at all!
“Youweren’t,” Briar insisted. “Listen, whenever I tried getting close to you, you’d slip away from me. You were so convinced that no one could want you, that no one could be even remotely interested in you, that you shut down every advance before it could happen. After a while, I stopped trying altogether because I feared I’d scare you off forever. That’s why your aunt started setting you up on all those dates.”
My whole teenage love life was a ploy?
“She was gauging your receptivity to men—to see when you’d be open to my affections. We didn’t realize it until you left for college—that her efforts might’ve done more harm than good. Without our interference, you came right out of your shell.”
“No shit it harmed me! How would you feel, knowing every date you ever had was more into your uncle than you? Those boys might as well have gotten paid for taking me out!” Some of them certainly were. No normal teenage boy should have enough money to take his date to the Melting Pot. “At the end of those dates, I’d get a pathetic peck on the lips. No one ever tried to touch me, or hold me, or—”
“Because they knew I’d kick their asses.”
He’s got to be shitting me.
“So, what did you do?” I fumed. “Follow me around on all my dates? Hide in the background, so you could keep an eye on me?”
He didn’t even blink. “Yes.”
Lava churned in my belly.
“It was my duty. Still is.”
I wanted to smash his handsome face into the wall. Instead, I smacked my own face into a pillow and screamed until my voice ran ragged. When my lungs had emptied, I dropped the pillow to find Briar watching, waiting for my conniption to run its course.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I snapped.
“I can’t help feeling bad that you’re upset.”
