“Anna…” His voice trembles with something I almost don’t recognize. Regret, maybe even desperation. I look up at him, my heart hammering in my chest.
“Landon, please…” I let out a slow breath, pretending the room isn’t tilting ever so slightly around us. “Don’t say anything that will make this harder for me.”
Ignoring my plea, he takes a step closer. “I won’t hide that I regret letting you go.” His eyes lock on mine as he adds, “And I definitely won’t hide that I want us back.”
My chest tightens. I want to lash out at him for all the hurt he’s caused, yet a small, stubborn part of me aches at the honesty in his eyes. But I refuse to show him that even a fraction of me feels anything for him.
“You regret it and want us back?” A bitter laugh rips out of me as I choose to hold on to my anger.
“Listen, I don’t—” I start, then choke on the rest, because the words I want to say, that I don’t want him, that his regrets can’t fix what he broke, just won’t come out. sBecause even now, some pathetic part of me still aches for him. And God, I hate myself for it.
“I know it won’t be easy to win you back. And I’m not asking for easy. All I’m asking for is a chance. This time, I’m ready to fight for us, Anna. And I won’t stop until I’ve got you back.”
The breath leaves my lungs in a slow, uneven rush.
No, I can’t let myself give in.
I’ve managed to survive all these years without him. I just can’t risk unraveling all over again, not even if the smallest, weakest part of me still wants him.
“Please stop, Landon.”
“Anna, I’m not the man who once hurt you. I’ve changed. And this time, I won’t fail you.”
I shake my head, desperate to hold onto the part of me that refuses to believe him. “People don’t change.”
“They do,” he retorts, cupping my face, his hands trembling against my skin. “When they lose the one thing that made life worth living… they do.”
I should leave. I know I should. But I don’t. Instead, I find myself arguing. “No matter how you spin your words, they don’t mean anything.”
“You can doubt me all you like, but that won’t change the truth behind what I said,” he says quietly. “Every day since we parted, I’ve realised what I lost and how much I needed to change. Trust me, sweetheart, I’ve burned the man I used to be years ago. The man standing in front of you now is the one who knows exactly how much he loves you.”
His thumb brushes tenderly against my cheek. “I love you in ways I didn’t even understand back then, and I won’t let you slip away again.”
I close my eyes for a moment, hating how good he is at finding the exact words to slip past my defenses.
When I open my eyes again, he’s already watching me. My gaze locks on his, searching desperately for the manipulation, the lie… anything that would prove he’s just playing me. But all I see is that maddening honesty, the same honesty that once made me believe him even when I knew I shouldn’t.
“Whatever this is,” I say, my voice steady, “it ends tonight.”
Something shifts in his expression. Pain. Hurt. Maybe even defeat.
But he nods slowly. “We’ll see.”
I don’t respond.
My throat tightens, swallowing the words I want to say but can’t.
Chapter 8
Landon
I shouldn’t have gotten jealous. Dammit, I had no right. Not after the way I walked out on her. And I sure as hell can’t claim the moral high ground when I’ve had my share of women since then. Not because I stopped loving Anna. God, I never did. But because I didn’t know how else to deal with the ache.
With every woman I touched, I was chasing her. The sound of her laugh. The softness in her eyes when she looked at me like I was her whole damn world. That little frown she gave me when I pushed too far. But every single one of them was a waste. Nothing came close to my Anna. They were just distractions, and every one of them only made me feel like an even bigger asshole.
And now, after hearing her confession, I feel like the worst kind of hypocrite, knowing she hasn’t been with anyone since. That there’s been no one but me all this time.
But at the same time, the selfish bastard in me feels fucking ecstatic. Because just the thought of Anna with another man sets my chest on fire, like someone poured gasoline over my ribs and lit a match.
