Chapter 78

Julian’s POV

Watching Chase drive off with Amber made something shrivel inside of my soul. I was furious, but not in a way that I could act on. Instead that anger stayed within me, coiling around my mood and turning it darker.

Even resting on the floor, I had felt a peace last night that I hadn’t experienced in years.

Not since the last time I had slept beside Amber.

Even from the floor, with her on the bed, her closeness gave me comfort I had long been denied.

Gods, I had missed her.

That yearning would continue, it seemed, perhaps indefinitely. Or at least until after Chase was done with her.

I had tried to warn her against him. Again and again. Why would she get in that car with him?

When she had come in here last night, she had been filled with passionate anger. She’d been furious that I had risked our reconnection by allowing Olivia into my hotel room.

That anger had sparked a hope in me. If she was angry, she had to care about me, about our relationship, about our future. About all that I’d risked for a perceived hookup.

She didn’t understand that Olivia and I were only acting friendly. I supposed I wouldn’t either, if our situations had been reversed. Especially given what happened the last time I had been drinking with Olivia.

I looked over at the desk where the bottle of wine and the glass Amber had emptied were sitting. Olivia’s glass was half empty, resting on the windowsill.

Walking over to it, I lifted the glass. There was the barest drop at the bottom. Swirling it around, I noticed how chalky it seemed. Lowering the glass, I picked up the bottle instead.

This wasn’t a cheap bottle of wine. There should have been no chalkiness. Unless this was a bad batch? That could have been why Amber didn’t handle it well.

She said she usually handled her alcohol better than this.

Two rum shots and a glass of wine in such a short amount of time would have likely made her sick. But drunk enough to black out?

And then, there was that strange behavior she showed before she passed out. In an effort to contain my libido while she was still here, I had pushed those moments to the back of my mind, but they were coming forward with a vengeance now.

She’d been so hot, so seductive, pressing her body against me. Rubbing her breasts on my chest while trying to hook one leg around me.

And that look in her eyes… There was a fire in those depths, one I’d seen before long ago.

During our marriage, Amber and I had a lot of problems. Sex wasn’t one of them. We burned for each other, near constantly. The flame I saw last night was the same one I had seen in the past.

It could have been all the alcohol removing her inhibitions, in which case, it was nice to know she still wanted me, even if she hid it under the surface.

But… I looked at the bottle again.

There was some similarities between what happened last night and what happened the night I had inadvertently had that one night stand with Olivia. Just as Amber couldn’t remember last night, I couldn’t remember that night.

Sometimes I wondered…

No. It made no difference now. What was in the past was in the past. The child Olivia and I had created that night was lost. It would be something of a dishonor to their memory to question things now, wouldn’t it?

Ug.

I placed down the bottle and turned away.

One thing I knew for sure. I would not be drinking with Olivia ever again. Not even to see Amber jealous. Though I had enjoyed her signs of caring for me, it wasn’t worth the fallout.

Still, Amber’s last words before passing out stayed with me, and would likely forever, even if she never remembered them.

I don’t want to share you…

Amber’s POV

“I don’t do one-night stands,” I told Chase.

“So you are seeing Julian?” Chase asked.

“No,” I said firmly, frustration spiking. “We didn’t have sex.”

Chase’s brow pulled together in a mix of confusion and skepticism. “Amber. You literally did the walk of shame out of his hotel room wearing last night’s clothes.”

“I’m telling you nothing happened,” I said.

He considered this a moment, then shrugged. “Shame.”

I looked at him sharply. “I thought you hated Julian. You warned me against him.”

“I do and I did,” Chase said. “If you wanted to be in a relationship with him, I’d worry. But sex? Love, have all the sex you want.”

The car behind him honked and looking back to the road, he pulled the car forward again.

Julian was attractive… Gods, those muscles of his, and that handsome chiseled face. Those eyes like twin oceans… And those hands. The things those hands could do…

Blushing, I pushed the thoughts away and turned toward the window.

Chase must have seen though, because he laughed and laughed, all the way to the clinic.

At the clinic, I showered and changed. When Anna heard I was here, she met me in the locker room as I was putting on my doctor’s coat and pulling my damp hair up into a bun.

“I’m so sorry about last night,” she said, and explained what happened leading to the decision of leaving me there with Chase. I understood her worry. Her inability to carry me. Not wanting Julian to take me home. Worrying about what Alice would think. Anna also explained that she relieved the babysitter last night and watched Anna, then took her to school this morning.

All of it was understandable. I couldn’t be mad at her. In fact, I was glad she prioritized Alice.

“I made Julian swear to the Moon Goddess that he wouldn’t touch you,” she said.

I sighed, immediately more at ease. Though I hadn’t felt like anything had happened, and while I trusted Julian not to be a brute in that way, it was still a relief to have that confirmation. Whatever small worry I had in the back of my mind was instantly squashed.

Truthfully, the person I hadn’t trusted last night wasn’t Julian, but myself. Though I still didn’t remember most of last night, I had some embarrassing flashes of… heat. I remembered pressing myself against Julian, wishing he would touch me, marveling at his body.

His body was a marvel, but I didn’t need to appreciate it by feeling it with my own!

“Thank you, Anna,” I said, forcing my thoughts away from Julian. “I really don’t know how I got like that so quickly.” It was something that was still bothering me. Something definitely felt off, but I couldn’t place my finger on it. Perhaps later, I would draw some blood samples from myself and run some tests.

For now though, work was waiting. And so was Chase.

Hurrying, I entered the examination room where Chase was. Looking him over, more closely now, I could see that his bruise was mostly healed. That was good.

I made a note in his chart. Perhaps things weren’t quite as dire as Chase had been led to believe.

“You are looking well this morning, Healer Amber,” Chase teased, playing as if we hadn’t already seen each other this morning, and like he hadn’t rescued me from one of the more embarrassing situations of my life.

I grunted in response. In doctor mode, he was easier to ignore. I scribbled in my notes.

Then it hit me. Something so obvious. Something I was overlooking.

A playboy’s reputation. Those blood results. Something everyone wouldn’t see.

I flipped back through the pages of his blood results, making connections I hadn’t seen before.

“What is it?” he asked me, suddenly serious now, perhaps picking up on my more serious mood. “Amber?”

I kept looking through his file. I wasn’t entirely sure, I needed to run more tests, but…

I think I knew how to fix his condition.

But there was one question I had to ask first, and I needed him to be honest with me.

Looking up at him, right in his eyes, I asked, “What happened to your fated mate?”