“You think that because you spread yourself for me like a whore, you would end up being my bride?” I spat.
You would have been. In a different life, baby. I’d be the man you deserved. I promise.
She shook her head. “This isn’t you.”
Oh, angel. Your faith in me…
I opened my arms, doing a slow full turn for her, so that she could see all my scars, my sins. “Yes, it is, angel. Did you want me to kiss you and tell you you're the only thing that matters to me?” I sneered.
She was.
All of this was for her, after all.
But she could never know it.
“So, after everything…you feel nothing for me,” she said, her voice broken, weak.
“I felt unsatisfied. Had to go downstairs and fuck a staff member. They finished the job you couldn’t,” I hissed.
You are the only one, Karina.
“Bullshit,” she yelled, dropping her hands and coming at me. She pushed my chest, and I didn’t move. She did it again and again, crying in anger until I caught both of her wrists with one hand.
“Enough,” I ordered.
“You don’t get it, do you?” she hissed up at me.
Don’t do it.
I rolled my eyes, and before I could say anything, she cut me off. “I've loved you since the first time I heard you laugh. Yourreallaugh. It was the most glorious sound I’d ever heard,” she admitted. “It was magic.”
Fuck.My heart was pounding in my chest, and I did everything I could to ignore it.
“And don’t bullshit me, Collin Stevens. I knew it was your real laugh, and I was the one who brought it out of you. I was theonly oneyou smiled for. I loved you when you stood up for me. I loved you when you used to watch me from the corner at those stupid college parties. Oh yeah, I felt your eyes on me all the time. I loved you when you protected me. I loved you when you distanced yourself from me years ago. I still loved you when I watched you beat your best friend into the ground. You should have seen me. I was a crying mess. Everyone thought I was crying for Kevin, but those tears were for you. Only you. Despite my best efforts, I still loved you after you stabbed my brother and left him dead by the river.”
“Stop—” My gut twisted.
“Every fucking day, I was like a robot without you. I didn’t break from my routine, and I stayed in the safe lane I'd created for my life. Then you—” She paused and looked away from me, her tears shining against her skin. “Then I saw you, dressed in all black with a cigarette hanging out of your mouth. And suddenly…I didn’t want to be in my safe lane anymore.”
“Stop it,” I hissed.
She yanked away from me, pointing at me. “You are it for me. There is no one else. From the moment I saw you, my body wanted you, the only man who I would allow in my body after—”
“Enough,” I roared, stepping away from her.
She pressed on. “I loved you when you kidnapped me.”
“Stockholm Syndrome,” I snapped.
My angel, my sweet angel, shook her head again. Fighting me.
“No, I didn’t want to love you. I wanted to love you nine years ago, when I was blissfully unaware of your darkness.”
“Then stop fucking loving me!”
“Like I have a choice, Col. The heart chooses for you, and mine latched onto you, darkness and all. I want you. I need you,” she cried, clutching the towel even harder, her hands shaking. “I love you.”
Her bottom lip was still trembling, begging me to kiss it. To make this right. To take all those harsh, cold, heartbreaking words back, but I couldn’t. I had to push her away, to protect her from this and him.All of it.
