I step back. "Nothing. It's nothing."
His face hardens again, the vulnerability vanishing. "Right. Nothing. Just like always."
I’m a coward. “I should go.” I hurry to leave, but Luca catches me in the living room entryway.
“Dammit, Elena.” He doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t have to. I can see the frustration emanating from his expression. “Tell me you believe me.”
“Why? It won’t change anything.”
I think I could have stabbed him in the chest and it wouldn’t have hurt as much as the words I just hurled at him did.
I hate that I have to cause him this pain.
“Why? Did you really say that? Because I’m not guilty and I’m sick and tired of walking around like a condemned man around you.” He shakes his head. “Then again, maybe it won’t matter. I wonder if you ever did love me.”
My breath hitches that he’d question my love for him.
“How else could you believe I’d hurt you?” He reaches up, his finger and thumb gently holding my chin as he studies my face. “Why do you really hate me so much?”
“I don’t hate you.” The words are out instantly. Automatically.
“Then why can’t you give me this one thing? Why can’t you see that I never betrayed you?”
No. I’ve betrayed him.
I let him down.
But there’s no going back.
Not when the world around us is willing to kill.
The intensity of his gaze is about to make me wither.
I turn away, and something catches my eye above me.
A small cluster of green leaves and red berries dangle from the archway where we're standing.
Mistletoe.
Luca follows my gaze upward.
His expression shifts from frustration to something more dangerous.
A flash of heat.
Luca's eyes lock with mine, dark and intense.
The air between us ramps up again with electricity.
I can't breathe.
Can't move.
Can't think beyond the memory of his lips on mine, how perfectly we fit together, how completely I once gave myself to him.
Only him.
His gaze drops to my mouth, and I feel it like a physical touch.
