“I don’t know how to do this anymore,” I admit, and that cracks something in her expression.
We’re standing too close now. Close enough to feel each other breathing. Close enough to remember every kiss… every touch… every whispered‘I love you.’
Her eyes drop briefly to my mouth. Mine do the same.
A dangerous mistake as the tension between us turns unbearable.
“I hate you,” she whispers.
“You don’t mean that.”
“No?” Her voice breaks. “Then why does loving you hurt this fucking much?”
My hand slides against her waist before I can stop myself, and she gasps softly.
And suddenly, all I can think about is kissing her. Tasting her again. Holding her—keeping her.
Three years disappears between one heartbeat and the next, while she tilts her face upward toward mine unconsciously.
“We can’t,” she whispers.
And that… is my undoing.
Ophelia
“Never Too Late-Three Days Grace”
“We can’t,” I whisper. The words come out shattered, barely even real because every single part of me is screaming the exact opposite.
He stands so close I can feel the heat pouring off his body despite the cold air wrapping around us. His hand is still on my waist.Heavy and possessive.
Familiar enough to make my knees weak.
God.
Three years and my body still knows him instantly. Still leans towards him like he’s gravity itself.
His green eyes darken at my words, jaw flexing hard. “Can’t what?” he asks.
“Kiss… touch each other… do—this,” I say, and he laughs.
“A bit late for that, Firefly.”
Tears burn behind my eyes while I stare up at him. Up close he looks different. Taller. Broader. Covered in scars I don’t recognize, and yet somehow… still Hayden. Still the boy who used to sneak through my window just to hold me while I slept.
My chest physically aches with want, which only makes me angrier. “You don’t get to stand here acting like this after what you did to me,” I say, and his expression hardens.
“What did I do to you?” he asks, pulling me against him as his hand snakes to my back, rubbing circles along my spine.
My body shivers when I feel his rough hands against my skin. But I shove against his chest.
“You let me believe you were dead!” I snap.
“I didn’t know you thought that!” he growls.
“Bullshit!”
“I’m serious, O,” he states as tears stream down my face. We’re both yelling, breathing hard.
