Cruel Kisses (It's Just High School #2) - Thandiwe Mpofu Page 0,88
I question, my mind racing.
“Yes, monsieur. You were still a little boy when you and your father would visit Paris in the summer.”
Huh, I vaguely remember that. This was after all, one of Dad’s favorite cities sin eth world.
“Of course,” I mutter. “Sorry, it’s nice to see you again, Max.”
“Oui, you as well, young monsieur. Though I have to say, it’s such a shame, the passing of your stepmother.”
I pause, my face scrunching up in a frown.
“My stepmother?”
“Yes, the ballerina, eh Madame Nancy,” Max says, and I almost choke on my own saliva, listening to what he just said. “Monsieur Fitzgerald and she were so in love, no? I drove them around the city many times. Watched over them and that little girl and you.”
Holy shit. Could that little girl be Mia? Have I met Mia before?
What the fuck?
“Such a shame,” Max says again, shaking his head.
Yeah, it’s such a fucking shame indeed. A shame that I didn’t ask dad the full story between him and Nancy, especially why the hell he told everyone that the woman who raise dt he woman I love, was my stepmother.
But it’s more of a shame that I don’t remember Mia. I swear, I’d remember a face like hers, eyes like hers, a snarky attitude that set the world on fire like hers.
But it makes sense, the spark we had right from the start. It was more than that though. It was more like being struck by lightning when she touched me, and when we kissed, I don’t know, the universe just burst behind my eyes.
She felt it too, otherwise why would she have still let me kiss her years later? Coming on my hand just a few hours ago?
She wants me, but she needs space.
I’ll give you that. Little Minx. For now.
When Liam walks through the front doors of the penthouse at three am, he finds me standing by the floor-to-ceiling length windows, a beer in my hand, waiting for him.
He stares at me silently, his jaw ticking, eyes narrowed, his chest heaving up and down so fast like he just ran a marathon.
Our eyes meet and hold. Brother against brother. We’ve never been here at this intense level before. Resentment isn’t really our style and we never did anything by half measures.
If my brother and I were going to hate each other, I knew it was going to happen on a full scale and now, it’s taking a herculean effort not to tell him to get on a fucking plane and go home.
“Where is she?” he demands, staring at me with his nostrils flaring a bit.
“Not here,” I mutter, taking a chug of my beer.
“I fucking know that she’s not here, because I know you did something to drive her away,” he fires back. “Now, where is she.”
“I don’t know.”
“What the hell is your problem?” he seethes. “You’ve been acting like a fucking dick to me lately. What the hell?”
“My job isn’t to sooth your feelings,” I mutter. “You made it abundantly clear that I was smothering you. That I didn’t respect you. That I’m overbearing.”
“That’s because you are!” he shouts. “But I needed to tell you!”
“Yeah, you told me all right,” I grumble. Liam didn’t hold back, managing to make me feel like shit and a total failure when it comes to letting him and Aiden down with a single word.
“The fuck, Julian! What the hell do you want from me, huh?”
“Nothing,” I mutter dryly. “I didn’t ask for you to come here, did I?”
He glares at me. “I didn’t come all the way to Paris for you, asshole. I came for her, now, where the hell is she?”
“Why?” I growl. “You think she needs you?”
“I know she needs me. You’re too much of an asshole for her, when you don’t realize that pushing Mia is really like shooting yourself in the foot. She withdraws from you.”
“Ah, so you’re the Mia whisperer, then?” I bite out, placing the empty beer bottle on the counter with a thud, facing my brother fully now. “You think you know her better than I do? You think you know her just because you kissed her?”
“Maybe I do, asshole.”
“Well you’re fucking wrong! A kiss won’t ground her. She’s different, she’ll swallow you whole if you think you can handle her. She needs something darker, harder…”
“And all that shit is you, I presume?” Liam questions, looking cool and detached. “You think she can only get all that from you?”