Twisted Love (Modern Romance #3) - Piper Lawson Page 0,88
“I started this company to create a legacy for my children. I can see this legacy would be best served by having you work with Camila on the new resorts.”
Surprise slams into me, but I try not to show it. I definitely don’t ask him to repeat himself, though for a moment, I’m sorely tempted. “Thank you. I look forward to working with your daughter-in-law.”
The veil of darkness lifts a little for the first time in a week.
It doesn’t feel like the triumph I thought it would. But at least it feels like something.
When I finally take a car home, it's after midnight.
I take the steps upstairs, each one feeling as if it requires supreme effort and not because I’ve been on my feet all day.
I’ve always loved my apartment, but it’ll feel empty tonight.
When I turn the key and push the door open, low lights greet me. Confusion washes over me as I step inside, my heels clicking as I cross to the living room without stopping in the entry.
Inside are dozens of candles—on the coffee table, the shelves.
Even my Xbox is on the floor, candles placed in a circle around it.
"Lil?" I call.
No answer.
I turn back to the foyer, reaching for my phone, when my gaze lands on the table. Not the candle flickering there, but what’s in front of it.
I set down my handbag and reach for the little dog figure as if Jet can explain what’s going on. My heart thuds a steady rhythm that’s harder than it was a few minutes ago.
“Lil’s staying with a friend tonight.”
The voice at my back is familiar. Intimately.
I turn toward the living room.
Ben moves out of the shadows, the candlelight catching his outline and slipping over it like a caress. He’s wearing a sweater and jeans that hug his body. His hair is a dark mess, looking unusually tamed and brushed to one side over stormy eyes.
"How was the wedding?” he murmurs.
“Beautiful. I’m happy for them.”
“You don’t look happy.”
I can’t move. The knots in my stomach are back, and my ribs are a too-small steel cage around my lungs, my heart. “Because I know how it feels to love someone so much it takes you over. Even if they don’t love you back the same way.”
“That’s not true.” His murmur is so low I almost miss it.
But those words have hope igniting in my chest, fighting the heaviness. “It’s not?”
There are five feet between us. Not enough to keep me from drowning in his eyes, especially when he steps closer. The light dances over the planes of his handsome face, and my fingers itch to touch him.
“When I was in college, I met this girl. She was smart and interesting, and she cared about people in a way I’d never seen. I didn’t know what to do with her. So I kept her close without letting her in the way I wanted to. And she made choices, to protect both of us, that I didn’t agree with, but I understand.”
Ben stops in front of me, taking the dog from my hands.
“She even got me this—” he nods to Jet, “—because she wanted to teach me how to love. And she did, but not with a dog.”
Every breath is painful because I’m hoping for his next words and afraid to hope all at once.
“I didn’t want to lose my heart to you, D, because I thought it would make me weak. But it’s already yours. And I’ve realized that what we have has never made me less. You’ve only ever made me more than I am.”
His throat works, his shoulders tight under the sweater that clings to the body I know almost as well as my own.
“You’ve always been there for me, through everything. Even when I didn’t know you were. That night in college… I was looking for compassion, for understanding. I found it in you. I could only have found it in you, because you are unique. I would know you anywhere. If every sense I owned was lost, I’d know you.”
I start to protest, but he presses a finger to my mouth. "You do this thing when you’re thinking—your lips part and you freeze like that, distracted. It makes me want to kiss you until you come back to me. And when you’re frustrated, you sigh under your breath so low only I hear it. And when you look at me, it’s as if you see everything in my heart, the good and the bad, and you