“Jesus, Christ,” I bit out.“How many times do I have to tell you how sorry I am about that night, Lissa?I mean, is the plan to hold a grudge forever?”
“I don’t recall you saying sorry at all,” she retorted, never one to back down.
“I said it in a million texts, voicemails, and I even sent you messages on your social media,” I reminded her.“I lost count of how many apologies I’ve sent you because you hadn’t given me a choice.You refused to see me, so that was the only way that I could tell you sorry.”
She shrugged like she wasn’t shredding me to pieces.“Fine.You’re sorry.”
I stepped away, leaning my head back to crack the tension that was crawling up my spine.I was trying to make amends by giving her a sincere apology, but she was dismissing me in the same way that I had dismissed her choice of psychiatric discipline.
She was fucking killing me.
Once I got myself under control again, I looked back down at her.“Baby, don’t do that.”
“Do not call me baby,” she immediately fired back.
“Why not?”I asked, forgetting about my earlier vow not to overstep.
Her back straightened, and she looked fucking stunning when she was primed for a fight.“Don’t let Bodhi’s claims of an epic love go to your head, Lazarus,” she practically hissed.“Even if I do end up believing that I’m meant for the greater good, and that Bodhi is telling the truth, that doesn’t mean that I have to bring you along for the ride.”
“You heard him,” I fired back.“You won’t be successful without me.”
“With God, anything is possible,” she reminded me.“WithGod, notyou.”
“I’m fucking sorry,” I snapped as I grabbed her arm.“What the fuck more do you want from me, Lissa?”
“I don’t remember asking you for anything,” she quickly replied, though she wasn’t making an effort to dislodge my hand from her person.
“Oh, that’s not how I remember it,” I said, my voice dripping with an anger that I wasn’t used to.“In fact, I remember youbeggingfor me.”
Instead of slapping me in true pearl clutching fashion, Elisabeth got right up in my face.“I was begging for yourdick, not you.So, don’t confuse the two, Lazarus.”
I refused to believe that.
“You can lie to me and yourself all you want, but we both know the truth,” I growled.“Otherwise, why cut me off so brutally?”
Elisabeth let out a humorless laugh, and a slither evil danced down my spine.“Because that’s how unimpressed I was with your dick.I didn’t cut you off because you hurt me; I cut you off because you weren’t worth my time anymore.”
Somewhere in the darkness, I could hear a chorus of gleeful laughs, and I knew that sound.It was a familiar song from my childhood, and I’d only recently begun to hear it again.Bodhi had warned me that evil was winning, and in this moment, I believed him in a way that I couldn’t explain.”
With my hand still wrapped around her arm, I reached up with my other one, then grabbed the back of her neck as my lips came down on hers.Whatever this was, whoever was after her, however we came to be here, I was not going to let anyone take her from me again.I was not going to give this woman up without a fight, and that included fighting with her.
However, instead of pushing me away, instead of struggling to free herself, the sound of Elisabeth’s purse and keys hitting the ground echoed through the silent night as she kissed me back, and as soon as I let go of her arm, my hand slid around her back, wrapping her close to me.I held her impossibly tight as we kissed, her mouth open in a sweet invitation for me, but it was more than that.Just like that night, we were doing more than just kissing or sharing the same air.We were being what Bodhi had accused us of being.
We were fucking one.
All too soon, Elisabeth broke off the kiss, leaving us both breathing heavily, our hearts racing like we’d just run a marathon, and though I had no idea how I knew what she was feeling, I did.I felt the beat of her heart like it was nestled next to mine in my chest, and the realization made my hands shake with everything that I wanted to do to her.
“That shouldn’t have happened,” she rasped, out of breath.
“Like hell,” I bit out.“We both know that it’s something that should have been happening every damn day since our night together.”
Instead of denying it, Elisabeth threw her hands up to stop me from touching her again.“I need a minute, Lazarus.I need...I just...you need to go.”
“No, I-”
“I’m not asking,” she snapped.“I’m telling you that I need a fucking moment, and you sure as hell better give it to me.”
Even though I didn’t want to leave her, my brain was telling me to take the kiss as a win and to give her the space that she was demanding.I was also very aware that I couldn’t fuck this up again, so left with little choice, I gave her a tight nod, letting her know that I’d heard her loud and clear.
