The library door opens, and I jump. Kairo is standing in the doorway in just his shorts, hair messy from sleep, squinting inthe low light. He sees me in the chair with the phone pressed against my chest and a look crosses his face.
"Summer?"
“I had to know.”
He looks confused by my response. “Had to know what?”
"It's me." I gasp. "The tattoo. It's my name."
He goes still in the doorway. “How?”
I turn my phone around and show him the photo I took this morning.
This makes him smile. “Clever girl.” He walks into the room slowly. He doesn't sit down, he stands in front of me, looking down at me, curled in the chair with my knees pulled up. "Five years," he says.
My brows pull together. "You put my name on your body five years ago.”
“Yes.”
"You told me it was someone important. Someone who means the most to you. I thought it was another woman. I was jealous of myself."
The corner of his mouth twitches into a small smile.
"Why?" I whisper. "I don't understand. How could someone like you want someone like me?"
"Someone like me?" he questions.
"You're powerful. You're dangerous. You could have anyone. And I'm nothing. I'm a girl who filed paperwork for her father's fake company and couldn't keep a boyfriend for more than two weeks. No man has ever wanted me. I'm worthless.”
His face changes, the softness disappears, and a harder look takes its place, not anger at me but anger at my words.
"That's not true," he says, and his voice is low and tight.
"It is. I've been invisible my whole life. My father didn't see me. No man ever stayed. I'm not the kind of woman men obsess over, Kairo. I'm the kind they forget."
He crouches in front of the chair, so his face is level with mine. He takes my hands and holds them. His grip is firm and warm. "The only reason no man ever stayed was because I made sure they didn't."
I blink. "What?"
"Every man who got near you. Every boyfriend who suddenly lost interest. Every date that got canceled. Every guy who stopped calling." His jaw is tight, but his eyes are steady on mine. "That was me, Summer, all of it, every time."
The room tilts. "What are you saying?"
"The first one, some kid from your street, took you to a movie. I had someone explain the situation to him in a parking lot. He never called you again. The second one took you to dinner and kissed you at your front door. I broke his jaw myself."
I'm staring at him, my mouth is open and no sound is coming out.
"By the third, word was out. Summer Rayne was off-limits. Everyone assumed it was your father being protective." He pauses. "It wasn't your father or brother, it was never them. They didn't care enough to protect you."
"It was you," I whisper.
"It was always me." He grins proudly.
"I thought something was wrong with me. Every time I looked in the mirror and wondered why no one wanted me …" Tears well in my eyes. "That was you." My voice hardens. "I spent hours alone, wondering what was wrong with me. I had convinced myself I was unlovable. You did that to me. What the fuck!”
"Summer …"
I shake my head at him. "No." I stand up from the chair, and he has to step back. "You don't get to act like this is romantic. You got your wish, Kairo. You broke me, it wasn’t here on this island, no, you broke me years ago. You took every chance Ihad at feeling normal, and you ripped them away because you decided I was yours before I ever got a say in it."
