ISLA
I closed my eyes, waiting for I don’t know what. His warmth only intensified the closer we got to his bedroom, simply convincing me that I’d combust at any moment. Being in his arms again assaulted all my senses, causing shivers to course down my spine. It was the same reaction he always provoked out of me.
It didn’t matter how much time passed. We shared this connection that couldn’t be broken. It was in such a different way from his brother and me. They both captured pieces of my heart, which was interesting, considering they were constantly piecing it back together.
I held on tighter to Julius as he kicked the door shut behind him before leaning against it. Pitifully, I tried to hold in all my emotions that threatened to spill, comforting myself with the truths that revealed themselves to him without having to speak. I knew he felt it. There was no way he couldn’t feel the effect he always had over me.
His touch.
His aura.
His mere presence.
Home.
“God,” he echoed my tone. “I missed you too.”
My breath hitched as I shuddered, weakening. I’d built this wall since he was gone. It was the only way I could stay away from Kraven, and right then and there, it all came tumbling down at our feet. Everything I’d been holding in was crumbling. I didn’t want to make this about me because it wasn’t.
I never imagined this would be my life, stuck between two guys who refused to let me go.
“How?” I asked.
“Marco,” he replied.
I gasped, pulling away to look at him. Once I was, I put two and two together.
“He’s the man you’ve been dealing for.”
“Mouse—”
“No.” I adamantly shook my head. “You don’t get to lie to me anymore. Not after all this.”
“I never lied to you.”
“Not telling me the truth is the same as lying.”
“There was no reason for you to know. There still isn’t.”
I jerked back, shifting out of his arms. “No reason?” I countered, suddenly upset. “I can give you a hundred reasons. Where would you like me to start?”
“You really want to do this right now?”
I peered deep into his eyes. “Us not doing this right now was what got you arrested in the first place.”
“No, Isla, what got me arrested was the man whose arms you were in when I walked in.”
I frowned, once again caught off guard. “You know?”
“Of course I do.”
“How?”
He cautiously eyed me up and down before arguing, “The same way you did, yet you still let him touch you like he isn’t to blame.”
“That’s not true!”
“Is that right?” he baited, cocking his head to the side. “It didn’t look that way to me.”
