if you’d make up your fucking mind about which one of us you want, this wouldn’t be such a fucking problem.”
She flinches at the words, her body going still before her stare locks to mine and a sweet smile splits her lips.
“Fine. I pick Damon.”
Oh, fuck that…
Pure rage filters through me at that bullshit answer.
“I think we both know that’s not your answer.”
“You’re right,” she says, her voice a bare whisper. “Because I pick neither of you. Just like before, and just like I plan to do again.”
Another lie.
I can see it written over her expression, can see it in the pain she’s fighting like hell to hide in her beautiful turquoise eyes.
“So you might as well let me walk away now since it won’t change the outcome.”
My jaw tics, her eyes flicking to the quick motion and back to mine.
“I can’t do that.”
“You have no choice. I can walk out of here right now and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
She gets quiet then, her gaze searching my face, this stare down heavy with everything we want to say but can’t bring ourselves to admit.
I love you, I don’t say.
I can’t stand you, is just another thought I keep to myself.
“This isn’t working,” Em finally argues as she turns to walk away. “I’m sorry, Ezra, but I’m leaving.”
She’s halfway to the door when I call out to her.
“That’s fine. But on your way out, why don’t you stop by Damon’s room and let him know about the promise you broke to me? Why don’t you tell him the truth about that for once?”
I’m shouting at this point, not giving a damn if Damon hears us.
He needs to hear us.
Needs to back the fuck off because this woman is mine and nobody else’s.
I know for a fact she’s never mentioned it to him. Damon has come up with every damn reason for why Emily left like she did, but not once has he blamed it on the promise she made me.
I’m not even sure why I’m suggesting it, but it stops her in place, her head falling forward before she slowly turns to look at me.
“Why would I do that? Why would I hurt him like that?”
Hurt him?
I know Damon has a thing for her. That’s pretty fucking obvious now. But hurt him?
She acts like she hasn’t been doing the same thing to me since the day she stopped answering my calls.
A flicker of a thought races through my mind, a voice whispering at the back of my head that I can’t hear clearly. Still, it’s there, but I’m too angry right now to take a second and listen to what it says.
“If you walk away from this, I’ll be the one to tell him.”
“Why?”
The skin between her eyes crinkles, the color from earlier absent from her face.
“Why would you do that to him?”
Interesting.
“Do what to him?”
She shakes her head without answering and sighs.
“Whatever. I give up. Five more weeks of pure hell. Are you planning on hurting me every day from now on the same way you’ve been hurting me this past week? Just let me know so I can prepare myself for the torture.”
Hurting her.
She says that like she hasn’t been hurting me this entire time.
Stepping close to her, I dip my head in the way I know drives her crazy. It always makes her eyes widen when we’re this close, her lips slightly parting as her pulses races that much faster.
“Have I hurt you?”
Emily’s eyes water, both sorrow and rage contained in her salty tears. Only one escapes to slip slowly down her cheek.
“Yes. Every day. Just by existing in this fucked up arrangement and refusing to walk away. You know exactly what you do to me.”
I grin at that, my eyes tracking that tear until I lift my hand to catch it on my finger.
“You’ll have to forgive me then. It couldn’t be helped.”
Her eyes lock to mine, her lashes waterlogged.
“You can’t help hurting me?”
My grin widens.
“It just happens, especially when you’re so pretty when you cry.”
I flick the tear back at her and step away.
Emily fractures as my words hang between us.
I watch the pieces fall apart.
Watch her heart shatter.
Watch pain ebb and flow so violently in her eyes.
But then she does the one thing she’s always done.
She picks up all those broken pieces and stitches them back together, her eyes locking to mine with defiance and rage blazing behind them.
It makes me grin to see it.
“I’ll see you later, killer. It’s getting