his back as he leaves the room, and I listen to his footsteps as he climbs the stairs and slams his door shut.
Like I said, a kiss can simply be a kiss. One kiss with Raphael doesn’t erase over a decade of hatred.
Out on the back patio, the sun is setting, with the heater offering the warmth the sun is taking with it for the night. Lifting my wine glass, I sip the rich red liquid and close my eyes to the echoes of gunshots ringing out across the city.
“How long have you been sleeping with Trey?”
Opening my eyes, I find Raphael staring at me intently from across the table. I haven’t seen Trey since our moment in the kitchen, and unless he’s called upon, I don’t think I’ll see him till morning.
“Who says I’m sleeping with him?”
“The way he acts around you. He doesn’t like me near you, or even talking to you.”
“That’s because we’re enemies.”
“We were,” he corrects. “How long?”
Not that it’s any of his business, I decide to indulge him with an answer. “For the last ten years.”
The blue in his eyes is always so bright, it intrigues me when they darken. More jealousy to deal with. Great.
“Has he been the only one?”
“What’s with all the questions about my private life, Raphael? You didn’t honestly think I’d spend my life never being touched by a man because you broke my heart?”
He throws back the rest of his wine and slams the glass down on the table.
“No, I didn’t, but I hoped.”
My brows pull together when I see he’s telling the truth.
“Why have hope? You must have slept with other women, because I felt earlier that your dick hasn’t shrivelled off.”
As much as he hates to, he smiles and pours himself another glass.
“I had hope because it was always my intention to get you back.”
“You had a funny way of showing it. Ten years is a long time to be alone, and it’s far too long to go without pleasure.”
“And did you? Find pleasure with him?”
“You’re going too far now,” I warn.
“When it comes to you, there’s no such thing.”
Sitting forward, I place my glass on the table and tilt my head, trying to work him out without having to ask a hundred questions, hoping to gain truthful answers.
“Love conquers hatred,” he murmurs.
“Is that what you feel for me? Love?”
He slowly pushes up from his chair and takes his time walking around the table until he stops before me and crouches down.
“You think I’d drop to my knee for anyone else? Shit went bad for a while, but I’ve always loved you. When I thought you were dead…” He shakes his head as if trying to clear out the memories. “I’m not wasting another moment when it comes to you. You’ve always been my Mila, I just haven’t been your Raphael.”
I once believed I knew when he was being truthful, and tonight, the way he speaks is just like those times, but I was proven wrong, or so I thought.
“The day your parents were killed, my father called me into his office. My initiation was to give the nod to have our men shoot your father to death. At the time, following our plan, I thought it couldn’t have worked out better for us. My father was pleased I acted with my head and not my heart, and then dismissed me. However, before I could leave the room, he informed me you and your mother were in the car too. He told me he knew about us meeting up, and he took delight in making sure I believed I had killed you. Do you want to know what I did when I left his office?”
His version of events are much different than mine, but I lean forward, nodding, wanting to hear the next part of the tale.
“I went up to my room and hurled my guts up, and then I… I took my gun and stuck it in my mouth. I couldn’t live in a world without you, not even for a day. One second is all I had left before Cristian charged in and took the gun from me, screaming that you were alive. I don’t remember driving across the city to go see you, but I remember knowing I had to get to you.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. He speaks the truth. I know that much, and a tear falls from my eye.
Pouncing forward, I wrap my arms around his neck and claim his mouth