"Like what?"
"Like you still have the right to."
The smile faded, and something darker flickered in his eyes. He set his phone down on the coffee table and stood, moving toward me with that predatory grace I remembered too well.
I should've backed up and put more distance between us.
My body didn’t agree.
He stopped a few feet away, close enough that I could smell him. My body hummed with awareness, every nerve ending lighting up like I'd been plugged into an electrical socket.
"I know I don't have the right," he said quietly. "But that doesn't change the way I feel when I look at you."
"And how's that?" My voice came out breathier than I'd intended, and I hated myself for it.
His eyes dropped to my mouth, lingered there for a long, heated moment, then came back up to meet my gaze.
"Like I never left."
The words stole what little breath I had left.
"But you did leave," I said, and my voice cracked on the last word. "You left, Hudson. You walked away and didn't look back."
"I looked back every damn day."
"Then why didn't you come back?"
He took another step closer, and I felt the heat of him, the sheer overwhelming presence of him. "Because I was doing things that would've put you in danger. Running missions that didn't exist, hunting men who would've used you to get to me without a second thought."
"So you made that decision for me?" I set the glass down on the counter with more force than necessary, my hands shaking. "You decided I couldn't handle it? That I didn't deserve a choice?"
"I decided I wasn't going to be the reason you ended up dead."
"Well, guess what, Hudson? Someone's trying to kill me anyway!" The words burst out of me, louder than I'd intended. "So congratulations. All that noble sacrifice bullshit was for nothing."
He flinched, and I saw the pain flash across his face before he could hide it.
"It wasn't for nothing," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "You got to live your life. You bought your bar. You built something. You were safe for ten years."
"I wasn'tsafe!"I stepped toward him, closing the distance between us, too angry to care about proximity anymore. "I was miserable! Do you have any idea what it was like? Waking up one day and the man I loved was just...gone?"
"I know." His hands came up like he wanted to touch me, then dropped back to his sides. "I know, honey. And I'm sorry."
"Don't call me that."
"Why not?"
"Because you don't get to. Not anymore. You don't get to stand there and look at me like I'm still yours. You don't get to call me honey and act like the last ten years didn't happen." I was right in front of him now, close enough to see the individual flecks of darker blue in his eyes, close enough to feel the warmth radiating off his body. "Youbrokeme, Hudson. Do you understand that? You destroyed me."
"I know." His voice was raw, scraped down to the bone. "I know I did."
"Do you? Because you don't seem to get that I spentyearstrying to put myself back together. Years trying to forget you. And I never could." My voice broke, and I hated that it did, hated that I was showing him how much he'd hurt me. "No one ever measured up. No one ever made me feel..."
I broke off, shaking my head, horrified at what I'd almost admitted.
"Made you feel what?" he asked softly, taking another step closer.
"Nothing." I tried to step back, but the counter was behind me, trapping me. "It doesn't matter."
