A frown creases on his brow. Something creeps across his expression, and his legs tighten around me, caging me in. His hand starts moving up my arm, my shoulder, my neck, landing on my jaw and tilting my face toward him.
A beat.
A lean.
Our lips touch.
Not a kiss, but a graze. The briefest brush of something too big to name. His mouth hovers against mine, tongue poking out to taste my bottom lip.
A tease.
And it detonates inside me.
I suck in a sharp breath, choking down razor blades. I’m frozen. Shaking. Cracking open from the inside.
Panic floods in.
No.
With a sharp gasp, I jump off the couch. The guitar topples off my lap with a dull thud. I don’t turn back. Can’t look at him.
I just run.
Out of the room, through the kitchen, into the dark, wet night, a trapped scream shredding my throat and tears bursting from my eyes.
The rain falls hard.
But I’m falling harder.
Chapter 36Chase
I should let her go, let her be.
But I can’t.
I’m on the move, chasing her out into the rain, still high from the taste of her melon-sweet lips. My blood is roaring, my restraint unstitching into tattered ribbons. If we do this tour, she needs to be mine. No more pretending. No more dancing around the inevitable. I’m so tired of this charade, of being the bigger person.
I bust through the back door, slamming the slider shut. “Annalise.”
She’s bent over the deck railing like she’s going to puke. “I can’t. I can’t do it.”
“Then don’t.” The rain picks up, dousing me in angry, cold sheets. “You don’t need to keep acting like you don’t feel this.”
Whirling around to face me, she shakes her head, a strand of hair glued across her mouth. “Idofeel it. Of course I feel it.” She swats the piece of hair away, her hands balling at her sides. “Why do you think this is killing me?”
I step forward. “It doesn’t have to.”
“You don’t get it. I’mengaged.” Her left hand flies up, fingers wiggling backand forth as the pear-shaped diamond reflects off the string lights. “I’m marrying him. I was always meant to marry him.”
Jaw tight and body vibrating, I meet her stare. “I see the ring. But I also see this.” With another step forward, I wave a hand between us. “And this doesn’t lie.”
“God, Chase.” She grips handfuls of her hair, fisting tight. “You’re acting like this is a simple choice of deciding what to make for dinner.”
“I’m not saying it’s simple, but itisa choice. And you’re choosing someone who tells you who to be. Not someone who sees you as you are.”
Her voice splinters with grief. “That’s not fair. You don’t understand. Marriage can fix this. It has to. After everything I’ve put into us, all the years, all the sacrifices…this is the moment it pays off. This is when it gets better.”
Regret overrides the ache, and I know my heart is possessing my tongue. But how can it not when she’s standing here convincing herself that a ring is salvation? She’s not being fair either. She’s tying me in knots, then pulling the string, letting me unravel all alone.
