Page 41 of She is the Darke
He deserved silence and distance, just the same as before.
She was tired of being a game. From this day on, she would never be a game for a man again.
Chapter Twelve
There was a knocking on her house, but it wasn’t the door.
Demi sat up in bed and froze, listening.
Another banging noise sounded, but up on the roof.
Someone was trying to break in!
She kicked out from under the tangled covers, shoved her feet into a pair of old, gray snow boots, grabbed the baseball bat by the front door, and yanked the door open—ready to murder!
There was a ladder in front of her door, resting against the eaves of her home. She ducked out from under the entryway to see Tyler, hanging a strand of orange lights.
“What are you doing?” she yelled.
He looked down at her with a pissed-off glare. “I’m doing what I said I would do. I’m decorating your home for you.”
“Did you not hear anything I said yesterday?”
“Yeah, I heard it all. Every single word. And when it was my turn to talk, you ran, and then blocked my text messages.”
“We’re done, Tyler. Go home.”
He stood at the top of that ladder, glaring at the roofline. Two seconds passed, and then he dropped the strand of lights and climbed down the ladder faster than she even realized a man could do.
“I absolutely listened to everything you said, Demi. It tortured me. I haven’t fucking slept! You made me feel awful, and you know, normally I might deserve that, but I didn’t do anything wrong this time. I was so confused on why Danielle was sending me pictures of her until I broke down and asked Rachel what the hell was going on, and she gave me the backstory on Danielle. A backstory I had no idea about!” He stepped closer. “She stopped me last week while I was working and asked to hireme out for the Christmas season. I was considering it on one condition, which I was upfront about!”
“What…” She swallowed hard. “What condition?”
“I won’t ever work with anyone in that neighborhood but you. She was shit out of luck on that, even before I knew your history with her. I do have a business to run while my dad is down, and so I do have to build up a client list outside of just working with you. That’s what I do. That is my job. Danielle got to you, and because sometimes you women are complete head-cases to each other, my guess is she probably saw you out there talking to me, and sent those pictures to get under your skin. It wasn’t for me. She sure as hell isn’t under my skin. Some hard-headed, stubborn, frustrating female has been so far in my fucking mind since I was eighteen years old, Demi. That’s you. I wasn’t messing with you, or playing with your head, or talking to other women in whatever romantic way you’re imagining. I’m happy with you!” He pulled his phone out of his back pocket, opened up the text thread, and aimed the screen toward her face. “You don’t trust me. You were real clear about that. My God, Demi, someday you’re going to figure it out.”
“I don’t need to see it,” she murmured, feeling sick. She’d been crying all night, and now she felt like there was a possibility that she had overreacted.
“I need you to look at both the text threads that you had concerns about. Listen to the truth in my voice as I tell you I haven’t deleted or altered a single thing. Here’s Danielle’s. You can look at Erin’s too. Read every word. I don’t fuckin’ care. I’m back in town and so there is some attention, but that won’t last forever. Especially not with you flying circles around me, taking shots at every woman who looks my way.”
“Oh, so it’s my fault that I feel disrespected?”
“No! I’m listening! Woman! I’m so fucking pissed off, and I feel like I’m going to pay for mistakes I made when I was a kidfor the rest of my life with you! I’m sorry! I’m sorry, okay? I regretted kissing anyone else after you. I regretted every one. I wasn’t ready for you. You felt huge, and scary, and I knew if I let myself dig in with you, I would never be able to leave this town.” He inhaled sharply, muttered a curse, and looked down at the ground, hands on his hips. “I wasn’t going to be able to leave. And now I’m back here, and everything is all messed up, and you feel even bigger now, and I still can’t seem to get it right.” He rolled his head back and shook his head at the sky. “I’m not going to get it all right.”
“I think I’m…” She felt so bad, now that she knew how it really was. “I think I’m scared too, and waiting for you to mess up. I expect you to hurt me. I get defensive when a hurt feels familiar. I really liked you back then, and then I functioned for a long time on my pretend-dislike for you.”
“I did research on shifters. On crow shifters in particular. The second I found out you were one, so many things clicked into place. I wanted to message you and just be supportive. I saw your family on the news, and I knew it had to be heavy, living in a small town where everyone had learned what you are. I typed out messages a dozen times, and deleted them every time. I couldn’t talk to you, so I researched. I wanted to learn everything I could about you. You crows mate for life, right? You form a bond to one person, and that’s it. You don’t see anyone else.”
Heat flooded her cheeks, and she clenched her hands at her sides. “I don’t want to talk about this—”
“Tough. I want to talk about it. I want to talk about everything. We are both shit at communication, but we’re going to learn together. You didn’t see anyone else after I kissed you, did you?”
“That’s not true.”
“Then what’s the truth?”
She crossed her arms over her chest like a shield, baseball bat still clutched tightly in her hand, and dared a glance up at him, chickened out, and looked at the ground again. He stepped closer and hooked a finger under her chin. “You’ve already shown me the animal. You’ve shown me the nest. I would die before I hurt you with that stuff. Let me in on the rest.”
“The bond happened before you even kissed me,” she whispered in shame. “The kiss just made the bond deeper.”