Still handsome. Always handsome. But cold.
She pointed at the door, still blocked by his body. “Can I go? My head is killing me.”
Instead of clearing the way, he stepped toward her, his free hand raised. “Please don’t break for me, Anna,” he said, and his voice was not cold. It was breathless and raw. Desperate.
That show of emotion was too much. What right did he have to be desperate while breaking her apart? A tide of fire seared across her heart as it finally splintered to pieces. Tears spilled from her eyes. “I think it’s too late,” she whispered, glancing down to make sure she wasn’t bleeding. She should have been bleeding. For how much pain there was, there should have been blood.
“I’m not worth this,” he said. “Please don’t do this to yourself.”
She let out a harsh laugh as the tears fell. “I’m doing this to myself?”
He said nothing.
“You said you wanted me. You said I belonged with you. I gave you my heart because you said I could trust you. You’re the one whodecided you didn’t want it. You’re the one who lied. And you’re blaming me?”
The colors in the room smeared together behind her traitorous tears, blurring his expression, though she doubted she’d see much anyway. David’s ice was impenetrable. She wiped her eyes to look, really look, wishing she could see the man she’d fallen in love with, but he was just…gone.
“No,” he finally said. “This isn’t your fault. It’s mine. I stood by and let you fall in love with the wrong man. I should have known better. Should have stayed away from you.”
She refused to listen to this self-hating diatribe. He spoke as if she played no part in the farce that was their relationship. She was simply a supporting character on his journey.
He stood aside as she brushed past, shifting his book so she still couldn’t read the title. “Anna…”
She stilled in the doorway to stare at his blank face, his casual posture. So dispassionate.
Maybe he’d always been this way, and she’d just ignored it. Maybe everything she thought she saw in him had only been fanciful imagination.
No words formed as he stared at her. He gave only silence.
Did she not deserve even a goodbye?
Anger split through the pain in her heart, electrifying the shards and flaring her temper. “Fuck you, David,” she said and left the room.
CHAPTER 40
DAVID
On a cold day near the winter solstice, David stood with crossed arms beside Sean, surveying the fifth outpost Bowenn had established in Viterra.
“It’s…an office building,” he said, somewhat unnecessarily.
“Anabandonedoffice building,” Sean added.
From a dusty desk, Isobel lifted an even dustier notepad between two fingers, then dropped it, face scrunched. She let forth a delicate sneeze.
David rolled his eyes.
Her tiny baby bump was in fine form this morning, parading under her fitted dress as if she meant to torture him with it.
Longing stirred, and he squeezed his eyes shut, but it wouldn’t banish the ache, the one Sean had buried beneath anger and betrayal. Did sheknowthat tying his soul to Sean would make him want her this way? Was this just another form of punishment?
Bitch.
Worse, however, was the tortured hunger Anna had inspired. Missing that pixie had become a constant pain between his ribs. IfIsobel stirred longing, then Anna had clawed her fingers into his chest and ripped out his beating heart.
These fucking women would be the end of him. He was sure of it. The emotional torment had shredded his sanity to bloody confetti, and he loathed himself for what he’d done to Anna as a result.
Her pain was unacceptable, unbearable, and it was all Bel’s fault.
