Once rejected twice shy, p.28
Once Rejected, Twice Shy, page 28
Shit, was she mated? He wanted to ask, but he really didn’t want to know.
“No,” she said. “I couldn’t. Emotionally.” She stared at the honey-colored liquid in her glass. “Didn’t want to admit it was true. Like, if I stayed away, she’d still be alive.”
He nodded. Hell, he’d spent the last fifteen years of his life believing Natalia would come back to him. She just needed time. It was only when he realized she wasn’t coming home for her aunt’s burning ceremony that he had some sort of epiphany: she really wasn’t ever coming home, at least not to stay. Sure, they’d grown up together, had been high school sweethearts, and he’d thought they’d been madly, deeply in love, but love only worked if both parties were on the same page.
When they graduated, Natalia had wanted to leave Dark Moon Falls, and she hadn’t asked Lyall to go with her. And they hadn’t been on the same page since.
“Yet you’re here now.” Three days too late.
She glanced up sharply, like she’d heard those words he’d said in his head, but she dropped her gaze back to her drink. “Yep. Guess I am.”
“Why?” Why bother was what he wanted to say.
She picked up a cocktail napkin with Wolf Inn stamped on the corner in silver ink and began to shred it. “The herb farm. She left it to me. I have to figure out what to do with it.”
Selina’s herbs had always been, hands down, the best in the coven. She’d had a thriving business providing remedies to the Dark Moon pack and selling her magic-infused herbs to the human tourists who were looking for a bit of supernatural but were afraid to dabble too much.
“Keeping it running yourself is out of the question, I assume?”
Her hands stilled and Lyall watched as a fat teardrop splashed onto the wooden bar top. He handed her a fresh napkin. She snatched it and dabbed at her eyes and sniffled and wouldn’t look at him.
“I’d never be able to run that farm as well as she did.”
“You mean you were seriously considering it?” His heart gave a funny little leap, the way it always did when Natalia showed up yet again and he allowed himself to hope that this time she’d stay.
But she was already shaking her head before he could even fully ask the question. “No. Lyall, please don’t do this. Not now. We’ve been through this so many times, I don’t know why you think things will change.”
“Because you’re from here, Natalia. And I know you aren’t a wolf, but witches have that same sense of family, of home, of—”
“Not all of us.”
“I think you’re just afraid.”
She took another drink.
“You’re afraid of us,” he persisted. Of what we could be. What we should be.”
“Lyall, I gave you my virginity and, yes, my heart, but that was a long time ago. We were both too young to understand what we were doing. And even back then, I never intended to stay here. I told you that. I’ve always told you that.”
And he’d been stupid enough to believe he could change her mind. That their love could overpower whatever the hell she was running from in her head.
He watched as she drained her glass. Then she placed it on the bar and dug around in the leather bag she’d draped over the back of the barstool. Extracting a twenty, she tucked it into his tip jar.
Lyall plucked it back out and tossed it at her. “Keep your big-city money. It’s not any good here.”
She slipped off her seat and straightened her spine and looked him in the eye. Even in the dimly lit bar he could see the pain swirling in those brown depths. Whatever the hell she’d been running from, she still hadn’t run far enough.
And then she left. Without the twenty.
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About the author
TJ Bell is the naughtier alter-ego of romance author Tami Lund (although you should totally read Tami Lund’s book too, because they are really, really good). She writes paranormal, all the time. Her heroines are tough, even if they are broken, and her heroes tend to have a heart of gold under all that alpha. Hell, sometimes they aren’t even alpha at all; after all, who doesn’t love a solid beta hero?
When she isn’t writing snarky, steamy books, TJ Bell likes to take long walks on the beach with a tall glass of wine… oh wait, wrong bio. But still true.
TJ Bell lives in the (sometimes) beautiful state of Michigan, USA, where the weather is glorious approximately 30% of the time, with her even-more-snarky husband, snarky-in-training (and progressing impressively) teenage daughter, and her dog, Kaya, who wants to know if it’s dinnertime yet.
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More books by TJ Bell
Demigods Trilogy
Justice and Her League
Justice Loses Her League
In League with Justice
Corporate Shifters Shared World
Bear With Me
Rejected Mates Shared World
Once Rejected, Twice Shy
TJ Bell is the paranormal pen name for Tami Lund, who also has a few good books available for your reading pleasure
Taming the Dragon Series
Dragon His Heels
Hungry Like A Dragon
Dragon in Denial
Bewitching the Dragon
Let Go My Gargoyle
Lightbearer Series
First Light & Broken Light (prequels)
Into the Light
Dawning of Light
Light Beyond the Darkness
Change in the Light
Cupid’s Light
Twisted Fate Trilogy
Of Love & Darkness
Prim and Proper Fate
Prisoner of Fate
(Blood Courtesans Vampire Series, written by multiple authors)
Resist
Eternity
Holiday Romance
Mirror, Mirror
Santa’s Destiny
Dark Moon Falls
(Shared world, written by multiple authors)
Lyall
Benjamin
Anthony
Which Witch Series
How I Fell Into Bed With A Demon
The Demon You Love
(Immortal Keeper Vampire Paranormal Romance Series, written by multiple authors)
Vampire’s Ghost
Gods of Thunder MC series
(Shared world, written by multiple authors)
Art of the Hunt
Paranormal Romcom
Art of the Hunt
Mirror, Mirror
Santa’s Destiny
How I Fell Into Bed With A Demon
The Demon You Love
Thank you for reading!
TJ Bell, Once Rejected, Twice Shy
