Chapter 46

Agnes

The touch on my back startled me, and I nearly spilled my drink as I jolted upright. But when I turned, it was just Elijah who was standing behind me. His hand was resting lightly on my shoulder blade, and he was staring at my back.

“You’re sunburnt,” he said simply before I could ask what he was doing.

I blinked at him, then craned my neck to look down at my shoulder. Sure enough, my skin was a vivid shade of red, already starting to sting where the sunlight had done its worst.

“Oh,” I muttered, trying to sound nonchalant. “Well, it’s not that bad. It’ll heal.”

Elijah’s brows furrowed, and he crossed his arms, giving me the kind of look a parent might give a reckless teenager. “Not that bad? Agnes, you’re as red as a lobster.”

I let out a small laugh. “Well, that’s what happens when you sit outside by the pool, I guess.”

“It’s what happens when you don’t apply sunscreen properly,” he corrected. Before I could protest, he gestured toward the shaded cabanas nearby. “Come on.”

I hesitated, glancing down at my drink and then at my discarded phone. I was still in a bit of a mood after receiving that email, and I was sort of hoping to drown my sorrows here at the bar for a few minutes.

But, finally, I grabbed my things and stood. I let him steer me into the shade, the coolness offering instant relief to my overheated skin.

“Sit,” he instructed, pointing at one of the lounge chairs.

I rolled my eyes but did as he asked, plopping down and taking another sip of my drink as I waited. “You’re really overreacting,” I said lightly, although the slight slur in my words betrayed the buzz I was already feeling. I guessed that the drink was stronger than I expected.

Elijah didn’t respond right away. Instead, he rummaged through our nearby beach bag, pulling out a small bottle of aloe gel. He sat on the edge of the chair behind me, the weight of him shifting the cushion.

Without a word, he squeezed a generous dollop of the gel into his hand and began applying it to my back.

The gel was cool, a sharp contrast to the heat radiating from my skin, and I couldn’t suppress a small gasp at the sensation. His hands worked methodically, smoothing the aloe over my shoulders and down my upper back, the touch firm yet careful.

“You really didn’t think to reapply sunscreen at least once?” he asked quietly.

I shrugged, swirling the straw in my drink as I avoided looking at him. “I was distracted,” I muttered.

“Distracted,” he repeated skeptically.

I didn’t reply. Instead, I let my eyes wander to the mating mark on full display on his neck. That jagged scar, that irrefutable proof of his bond with Olivia, stared back at me like a brand.

My chest tightened, and I felt the bitterness creeping in again, unbidden and unwelcome.

“You’re quiet,” Elijah said after a moment, his hands stilling against my skin. “What’s wrong?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could say a word, a voice cut through the air like nails on a chalkboard.

“Elijah, darling! There you are.”

Olivia’s voice. I stiffened instinctively, my hand tightening around the glass in my hand. Elijah’s touch left my back as he straightened, and I turned to see her sauntering toward us in a bikini that left very little to the imagination. Her hips swayed exaggeratedly with each step, her perfectly manicured fingers brushing her sleek hair back as she smiled—no, smirked—at Elijah.

And there, on full display on her own neck, was her mating mark.

I swallowed hard, looking away.

“I was wondering when I’d run into you,” she said, her voice as syrupy sweet as ever.

Elijah sighed audibly, his jaw tightening. He stood, positioning himself slightly in front of me as if to shield me from her. “Olivia,” he greeted flatly.

She cocked her head, her gaze flicking briefly to me before returning to him. “I didn’t realize you were here,” she said innocently, which was obviously a lie.

“Strange,” Elijah replied icily. “You just saw Agnes last night, when she kicked your ass at poker. Did you think she would have left vacation without me?”

Olivia merely chuckled and tossed her hair over her shoulder. Elijah turned to me. “Let’s go back to the hotel room with Thea.”

But I was already standing. The alcohol in my system, combined with the lingering frustration from earlier, was doing something dangerous to my judgment. I straightened my back, lifting my chin as I stared Olivia down.

“No,” I said firmly. “I’m having a nice time outside, and I’m not leaving just because a high school bully arrived.”

Elijah turned to me, his eyes widening slightly. There was a flicker of something that almost looked like approval in his gaze.

Olivia, on the other hand, just blinked at me, clearly caught off guard by my refusal to back down.

“Excuse me?” she said, daintily touching her chest with one perfectly manicured hand as if I’d wounded her.

“You heard me,” I said, already striding past her. “You don’t get to ruin my day.”

Elijah’s lips quirked upward, barely perceptible, before he reached for my hand. “Come on,” he said quietly. “Let’s go back to Thea.”

I let him pull me back to the pool, my heart pounding with a mixture of adrenaline and anger. Olivia didn’t follow, although I could feel her gaze burning into my back as we walked away.

Back at the pool, Thea squealed with delight as she splashed in the shallow end. I slid into the water, the coolness enveloping me and dulling the sting of my sunburn. Elijah joined me, and for a little while, we played with Thea as if nothing had happened.

We had a breath-holding contest, Thea counting down before we all submerged ourselves beneath the water. When I surfaced, gasping for air and laughing, I glanced toward Elijah. He was grinning, his dark hair plastered to his forehead, droplets of water trailing down his face.

But then I felt it again—Olivia’s gaze. I looked up, and sure enough, there she was, perched on a lounge chair with a group of moms surrounding her. Even the woman from earlier, the one who’d called me ‘lucky,’ was there, leaning in and gasping as Olivia spoke animatedly.

I couldn’t hear everything she was saying, but the words I did catch—’unfit,’ ‘undeserving,’ ‘only for show’—made my blood boil. The other moms nodded along, their gazes flicking toward me every now and then as Olivia’s voice rose.

“Agnes,” Elijah said quietly, his voice a warning. “Just ignore her.”

But I couldn’t. Not this time.

I pushed myself out of the water, the anger simmering in my chest spurring me forward. My feet left wet prints on the hot concrete as I strode toward Olivia with my head held high.

She noticed me approaching, her lips curving into a smug smile as if she thought she’d already won. But when I stopped in front of her, I met her gaze with a steady glare.

“If you have something to say about me,” I said icily, “then say it to my face.”