She glanced up at the ceiling. When she looked back at me, she stared for a minute before saying, “You obviously know he wasn’t, but I can’t say anything more, Roman. Please don’t ask me to.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but she stepped a little closer and shook her head, her voice softening as if she was trying to appease a child mid-tantrum. “Why don’t we talk about whyyou’re stalking me? I mean, where did you even get that photo from?”
What did I say to that? How could I even start to explain how we got here and what I did?
“When you’re ready to tell me your secrets, I’ll tell you mine.” Now I sounded like a child as well as behaving like one.
Her lips curled into a smile as she side-eyed me. “Good comeback, psycho, because you know I can’t tell you anything, so you get to keep your secrets.”
I turned, needing to put some space between us. “So, you admit you’re keeping secrets?”
“Why does it matter?”
I spun back to face her. God, she looked beautiful. Tired. Pale, but stunning. The woman I’d watched through a camera lens all these years, standing in front of me like my longing had brought her to life, but she was slipping away. I could feel it, and I needed to know where she’d been.
“Because it does,” I said with way more anger in my tone than I’d meant to, and she winced. I sucked in a breath before I spoke again, turning down my crazy. “Because you could have been hurt, you could have needed help.”
She stepped closer slowly, her hand reaching out so her fingers brushed over my pec. “I think we’ve established, I don’t need you to rescue me. And why do you care? I’m just a stranger. We didn’t even know each other a few weeks ago.”
My breath stuttered in my chest. Should I tell her everything? Cut myself open and let my secrets spill out like blood? The words collected on my tongue, but I couldn’t seem to get them out. Instead, I cupped her cheek, my thumb dusting over her lips. “I feel like I’ve known you forever.”
Her brows furrowed, and she stepped back, causing my hand to fall to my side. “You know nothing about me.Nothing.”Shesaid the last word with such rage, and I wasn’t sure how to reply, so I didn’t.
She continued to stare at me as if she were sorting through her thoughts, deciding which ones to share with me and which to lock back away, to keep secret forever. “You have no idea who I am, Roman.”
I scoffed, but stayed silent.
“I’ve done things. I had to do things…”
My hand fisted at my side as the urge to touch her burned through my fingertips.
“What things, Hana?”
Her eyes flared, and then she shook her head. “I mean, just taking care of myself. Having to survive on my own. With no one to rely on. That’s what I meant.” Her pulse hammered in her neck, and her chest rose and fell harder. I could see the emotion in her words, even though she was trying to hide them.
“Did that man in the car hurt you?”
She shook her head. “No, I promise.”
“Are you in trouble?”
“Roman.” She said my name with force, signalling that this conversation was over, and I replied with a nod.
Sighing, her shoulders sagged like she was fighting to stay strong, but the effort was becoming too much.
“Do you know what I know?” I started. “I know you’re strong, capable, independent. I know you can protect yourself. I know people love you, and your smile warms a room. I know you’re beautiful and sexy and my little menace.”
“I’m notyours, Roman. We’ve fooled around a couple of times. It’s sex. That’s it.”
Her words ripped through me like a knife to my heart, but I ignored them because this was so much more than that, and I was okay with the fact that it might take her a little longer tocome to that conclusion. I’d had years to fall in love with her. I couldn’t expect her to fall for me in weeks.
“You tell yourself that,” I whispered.
“I will,” she fired back. “Goodbye, Roman.”
23
HANA
