Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“There’s something I want you to know.” His voice lost its bite, turning soft like the storm clouds had passed.
I looked at him again.
He straightened in the chair, elbows on the edges of the armrests, his hands together. “I’m not ready to reciprocate your feelings…but one day, I will be ready.”
I inhaled a sharp breath when his promise reached out and grabbed my heart. He’d never addressed the words I said. Continued to blanket me with his affection but sidestep the depth of my feelings.
“I’m still stuck in the past in a lot of ways.”
Shayla.
“But just because I don’t say it…” His eyes shifted away, and he stared at a painting for a while. The silence lasted so long, it seemed like he’d completed his sentence. But after a minute, his eyes came back to me. “Doesn’t mean I don’t feel it.”
It was almost ten in the evening when Theo pulled into the underground parking garage. It was for patients of the medical offices across the street, so it was completely vacant at this time of night.
When Theo turned to descend farther, I saw a car parked there, an old black car.
Theo rolled down my window as he pulled up beside it.
Axel was in the driver’s seat wearing a black baseball cap with his arm hanging out the window.
“Where did you get that piece of shit?” Theo asked.
“Bought it from a guy for fifteen hundred euros.”
“You think I’m going to let you drive my girl around in that?”
“You think anyone is gonna follow me in this?” Axel asked, snorting in disbelief. “I’ll abandon the car a couple blocks over, and we’ll walk. No one will have a clue.”
Theo looked annoyed, but he didn’t argue further. He looked at me next. “You ready, sweetheart?”
Was I ready to leave him and potentially never see him again? No.
Axel looked away and scrolled on his phone in an attempt to give us privacy.
Theo continued to stare at me. “We need to make this quick. Just in case someone’s watching.”
“I’m just supposed to say good luck and leave you?” I asked incredulously.
He continued his hard stare. “I don’t like this either.”
“I’m scared.”
“Axel will protect you—”
“It’s not me that I’m worried about,” I snapped. “I don’t want you to die because of me.” Because I made the biggest mistake of my life when I married a jackass.
“We already had beef,” he said. “This showdown is inevitable. Now I just have another reason.” His gaze looked less hard when he looked at me like that, like I was a garden on a spring day, like I was a bunny that snuck inside to eat his carrots.
Axel hit the button and rolled up his window so he wouldn’t be able to hear us anymore. “I’ll let you know as soon as it’s done. And if I don’t come back—”
“Don’t.” That was a conversation I simply couldn’t have. I looked away and stared at the dashboard because his eyes weren’t enough to soothe me. “There’s no fucking way I’m doing that.”
He let the subject drop and moved his hand to mine. It was twice the size of my palm with long fingers, and he grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “I’ll see you soon, sweetheart.”
I stared at his hand on mine, the cords and the ink visible on the skin. My fingers gripped him back because I didn’t want to let go. Tears burned behind my eyes and wanted to break free, but I fought like a commander holding back the enemy. It was time for me to leave, but once I released his hand, I may never get it back again.
He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it, the coarse hair from his scruff sharp enough to scratch me, the way it scratched the insides of my thighs. Then he leaned across the car, his elbow on the center console, and kissed me. A slow kiss…a sad one…a final one.
His kisses always made me melt, but not this time. This time, it made me miss what I hadn’t yet lost. It made me say goodbye when I wasn’t ready to leave. It reminded me that I had what I always should have had, and it might be gone by tomorrow morning. It took all my strength to open the door and leave him.
Took all my strength not to look back.
We ditched the car and walked to Axel’s villa, entering his property through a back doorway from the alleyway. We crossed the grounds then entered through a side door connected to a patio. Once we were inside the house, Axel walked me upstairs to the second landing. “Scarlett and the kids are asleep.”
It was past eleven, so that didn’t surprise me. “That’s okay.”
“She’s happy you’re here, though.” He opened the guest bedroom door and let me walk inside. “Aldo knows you’re here. Let him know if you need anything.”