you are and not who you are. I don’t want to see your heart broken again.”
“There’s nothing left of my heart to break. It doesn’t exist anymore.”
“You have more heart than you know, Sloane. You just keep it locked away. Don’t let what happened to us be the reason you stay lonely and afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Afraid of letting anyone too close.”
“So you want me to forget about you and go chasing after two other guys?” I smile up at him.
“Well, not exactly. Our dance isn’t over and I am not ready to let you out of my arms.”
“Declan, why? Why did you leave me?” I can’t help it anymore. I have to know.
“It’s better if you didn’t know.”
“I need to know. Was it because I am a freak of nature?”
“What? Wait—no. Yes. Well, no.” He’s terrified. Probably scared of what I will do next.
“No or yes, Declan, which is it?” I’m pissed now and I know he can tell.
“It’s not what you think. I was sent…”
And before he can finish, my doorbell rings throughout the room.
Even though I could hear the door bell ringing, I had to take a couple of deep breaths before moving. Whoever was on the other side of that door was so going to get it. I looked at my cell phone to see what time it was, but it was dead. Looking at the top of the curtains, I noticed that the sun was out; it had to be at least mid-morning. I slung my feet to the side and staggered to the door. “Hold on! Damn it, man!” I screamed out, and the noise ceased. Leaving the chain on the door, I unlocked the two dead bolts and yanked the door open. Viktor stood there with two coffees from Starbucks.
“What the hell do you want?” I asked with irritation. I hoped he noticed, because if he did it again there would be a serious problem.
“I thought you might want some coffee.” He held both of them up and smiled.
“What time is it?” I asked, while allowing him to slide the coffee through the small opening of the door.
“It’s nine o’clock.”
I just about choked on my coffee, because I was never up this early unless I was just going to bed. So, I gave him the only thank you I could think of and slammed the door in his face, locking the dead bolts back. Although, the coffee he picked out was quite good and I smiled. There was a faint knock at the door again. I went through the routine again and this time I removed the chain and yanked the door back open. Viktor stood there like he was a kid who knew he did something wrong.
“Might as well come in.” I motioned for him to come in, and to hurry before the neighbors saw me in just my PJs.
“Wow.” He was looking at what I had on and I quickly walked over to the bedroom area to slip on my robe.
“Have a seat and let me just brush my teeth and hair.” I didn’t care if he sat; I just had to do something with myself. After brushing my teeth and clipping my hair back, I met him back in my living room.
“I’m sorry to wake you. I hardly sleep and I had to apologize for what happened last night. It wasn’t my place to, well, whatever.”
“Yeah, I honestly have no idea what all that was about. I guess you kind of stepped on some territory Jared thought he had.” We were sitting on opposite ends of the sofa drinking our coffee.
“Well, I just wanted to say I’m sorry and I’m just across the hall if you ever need anything.” He got up to leave and now I was ill.
“Wait—you came over at nine in the morning to say I’m sorry and you bring coffee?”
“Well, yes. Is there something else you want to talk about?”
“No, but you woke me up. And now that I am up, you are responsible for entertaining me.”
“I have a loft that is in need of unpacking.” He raised his eyebrows as I thought about his loft.
“I don’t know. I barely know you. You aren’t going to, like, tie me up and do anything crazy to me, are you?”
“I’ll only tie you up if you ask me to.” He was laughing and smiling at me as I turned red.
“Hold on, let me put some sweats on.”
Viktor waited for me in the living room area. The Loft was all