“Get out of here,” I yell at Callum over my shoulder. “And if you tell anyone about this, next time, I’ll let him kill you.”
Callum scrambles clumsily along the wall as he rushes to leave the alleyway.
I stare at the man in front of me, dressed in black sweatpants and a black hoodie like he’s trying to blend into the night and not be seen.
A shadow.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
His eyes pinch, but he says nothing.
“You came back for your family?” I ask. “To see them again?”
All I can hear is my heartbeat in my ears as I wait for him to say something. To finally let me in. It’s been weeks since I’ve seen him. And my head is spinning. But more than anything is the deafening voice in my head telling me to get the truth from him so I can finally understand. I need to know why he pushed me away. Why he left without saying goodbye.
“Give me something,” I plead, shoving his chest with a sudden pop of anger. “Say someth?—”
“I came for you.”
“W-what?”
He stares at me as my arms fall limp.
“I came for you, Jude. Because I couldn’t stand not being with you.”
I clamp a hand to my mouth as everything around him swims out of focus. The only thing that remains steady—the one thing I can anchor myself to—are his eyes, trained on mine with desperate longing.
As though he’s scared of what I’ll say.
“But you left. You screamed at me to go, and then you disappeared without saying goodbye.”
“I’m sorry for the way it happened, but I… I can’t do goodbyes,” he whispers, his face contorting with unconcealed grief.
“You fucking left me!”
“And I’m so fucking sorry.” He steps closer, stopping inches from me, but still not touching me, as if he no longer thinks he has the right to.
Does he?
“Where did you go?” I blink at him, emotion making my voice drop to a thick whisper.
“Morocco.”
“Morocco?”
He grimaces. “There aren’t any Beaufort Diamonds stores there. I figured it was a good place to start.”
“But now you’re here.”
I allow myself to take him in properly. Admire the solid muscles in his broad shoulders and the sharp cut of his jaw beneath the few days’ worth of stubble. Admire his dark, thickbrows, framing his mesmerizing eyes. And admire his dark hair that’s grown a little longer since I last saw him.
He looks rougher around the edges, like these weeks have drained him. But he also looks… determined.
“Now I’m here,” he repeats, his eyes never leaving mine.
“How did you know where to find me tonight?” I wrap my arms around myself, trying to ignore the chill in the air.
Slade unzips his hoodie, pulling it off to reveal a black T-shirt that hugs his straining biceps in a way that’s so sexy it should be illegal. He wraps it around my shoulders, but still doesn’t touch me.
