I smile slightly too.
“Call me if you need me,” he adds, before leaving my apartment.
Ian and I stand in silence, backs against the walls on opposite sides of the room.
“My brother, Nick…”
“If you have a trust issue with your brother, you need to talk to him, not to me.”
“Why was he here?”
“Are you really asking me that?”
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“You don’t know me at all, Ian. How could you even think that I…”?
He runs his hand over his face.
“I don’t believe in anything anymore.”
“He came by to talk to me about you.”
“About me?”
“And then…”
“Then what? Did he put his hands on you? Did he do something? Tell me he didn’t touch you or I will kill him and no one will run to save him.”
He speaks right next to me, panting. His arms are tense along his sides, his jaw is contracted, his muscles flexed, his eyes dark and lost.
And then, Ian O’Connor simply breaks down.
Like an avalanche of snow.
He falls and rolls down the mountain, stopping one pace from my heart.
“I couldn’t stand it, Riley,” he says, shaking. “I couldn’t stand someone else touching you,” he continues, closing his eyes. “I can’t accept that you aren’t mine.”
