Page 146 of Reverie
I stand taller, make my shoulders broader, and I stalk toward her.
“All I need is you, Winter,” I spit out. The words don’t sound as loving in their delivery as they do in my head.
“I know that you love me, Hunter. I don’t question that at all. But I want to know: In order to be happy, do you need to be with someone like your girlfriend Jami out there? Someone who doesn’t push your buttons? Someone who straddles the line between vixen and submissive?”
“Don’t, Winter,” I bite out.
“Do you want someone you can throw around? Someone who will take everything you can give them? And do you think that woman isn’t me?”
I’m on her in an instant, my hand firm around the back of her neck. I control her movements, and she places her hands on my chest.
Her pale pink nails press into my flesh, scoring my pectorals through my shirt.
“You want to fight, Sunbeam?”
“Yes, I do, Hunter!” She shoves me away. “It’s always ‘fight me about it later,’ but later never comes. So we’re doing this shit now.”
One of her curls falls in front of her eye and she bats it away with an agitated flick of her hand.
“In the absence of your full honesty in this relationship, all that’s left are empty dreams and manipulations. And now that I’ve taken off those rose-colored glasses, I realize thatgoddamn it, I love you, but you’ve been manipulating me all along.”
I stop breathing. She picks up the iPad, lifting it to give it a quick shake in the air.
“This? I can see what this is. I can see right through how The Legion is using this to harm your reputation. Do you think I can’t connect the dots and see how they’re trying to spin things?”
“You can figure out anything,” I say, my voice hoarse.
“The issue right now, Hunter, is that despite me begging and pleading with you to open up to me, and despite me giving you every single part of me over and over—even when it dishonors myself—you still have me on the outside looking in.”
“Sunbeam—”
“No, it’s my turn to talk,” she says, her voice a shout. “I understand how painful it can be to talk about your past. I empathize with the level of trauma you’ve been through, and I’ve always,alwayswanted to help you be the best, healthiest version of yourself possible. I want you to have the best life, Hunter.”
Her bottom lip quivers, and I have to clench my fists to prevent myself from rushing toward her.
“But this relationship isn’t healthy. Not right now at least. There’s so much that’s fucked and if we’re going to go anywhere, even if it’s just as co-parents, we have to start getting very honest with each other.”
I choke. “Co-parents?”
“Please be honest with me, Hunter. Did you knock me up to trap me? Was getting me pregnant one of your games to control me?”
My voice is hoarse. “Don’t talk about our baby like that, Winter. Our baby is a miracle.”
“Our babyisa miracle. I love our baby. I am happy to be pregnant, but what kind of family are we bringing them into? What lies and secrets will they have to carry alongside ours?”
“Enough!” I bellow. The pressure of the cabin closes in on me. I want to make her stop. I want her to stop.
I sink onto the bed. “What do you want, Sunbeam?” I murmur with my head in my hands.
“I want to know who the hell I married,” she whispers. “I want to know what is real and what is a lie.”
“I’ve never lied to you about us, Sunbeam,” I say. I can’t look at her, so I stare at the expensive carpet beneath my feet.
“You hid this crucial part of yourself from me. What do you call that, then?”
“I don’t want to be like that with you,” I grind out.
“Well, maybe I do!”