Page 65 of The Daddy’s Girl

“Then you should be with him, Amelia.”

My feet stop their pacing. “So that’s why you brought him here,” I state.

Even in my silence, my emotions grow. Humiliation, desperation, and anger. But more than anything, the one that makes each of these terrible sentiments glisten like a sheen of something beautiful over something ugly…is love. Adoration. Heartbreaking affection.

I still love Matis more than I have loved anyone, and I probably always will.

And there’s nothing I can do about it.

With rage-fueled tears brimming in my eyes, I spin and march toward the door. “Fine!” I bark. “I’ll go back to Jacob.”

Before I can reach the knob, he puts himself between me and the exit. “Wait, Amelia, please,” he begs.

“What, Matis? You want me with him, don’t you? That’s what you want!”

“I can’t have what I want!” he bellows in return.

With a flinch, I gasp, frozen in place as I stare up at him. “What…do you want?”

He huffs, running his hand through his hair. “I think it was pretty clear that night, Trouble.”

“Then…why did you bring them? Why⁠—”

“Because I am trying, Amelia,” he replies, sounding erratic and desperate. “I am trying to get over you. I am trying to want literally anyone else, but all I think about is you. And your lips. And your eyes. And your soft skin.”

He takes a slow step toward me, and the world ceases to spin altogether. I’m staring up at the man I love, hearing him tell me how much he wants me, and I’m sure I’ve hit my head or entered an alternate reality altogether.

But when I reach for him, he pulls away as if I’m poison.

“I didn’t ask for this,” he says with anguish as he turns away from me.

“You think I did?” I snap. “You think I want the only man on earth I am attracted to to be the one man I can’t have? You look at me like I’m a child, Matis.”

He turns back with a sardonic laugh. “You might as well be.”

“But I’m not!” I shout. “I am twenty-five years old. Matis, I am a woman with needs and desires just like everyone else.”

He groans at my words, putting his face in his hands. “You’ll find someone else,” he mutters. “You have to find someone else.”

“I don’t want someone else.”

There is still so much distance between us, it might as well be miles. All I want is to erase it, but I can’t force him to let go of his reservations. I can’t ask him to kiss me again. He has to do it on his own.

“Tell me to go downstairs, and I will. Tell me to leave with Jacob, and I will. The whole reason I even started seeing him was to get over you. I was so desperate to be rid of this crush, so if you tell me right now that there’s no hope for us, I will leave, and I’ll never bother you about this again. I’ll never ask you to kiss me or even walk me home. You’ll be free of me.”

With his back to me, he stands in tormenting silence. Judging by his heavy sighs, he’s in contemplation, and after the moments stretch and stretch and stretch, I give up.

“Fine,” I mutter with indignation. I try to sound tough, but I’m only a girl, and my voice quivers as I rush toward the door.

This time, I get my hand around the knob and turn it to pull it open. It only opens an inch before Matis slams his hand against it, forcing it shut. He’s hovering over me as I turn toward him.

I can’t tell if he’s about to yell at me or drop to his knees and cry. But then again, I don’t understand anything that’s happening anymore.

So when his next words leave his lips, they knock my world off its axis entirely.

“Free of you?” he whispers. “Amelia, I ache for you.”

Until the day I die, I will remember the sound of his voice as he uttered this sentiment. The wounded need in his husky tone.