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“You fucking knew.” It comes out a whisper, but I know she’s adding it up in her mind.
She stands from her chair, her hands pressed on the table. The glistening of her diamond ring catches my eye instantly and my mouth slams closed. I’ll be fixing that, and the Gucci emblem on the front of her belt draws my eyes to the destroyed tight jeans she’s wearing.
Fuck.
Me.
“What?” I ask, lifting Ares up and giving him a piece of peanut butter toast that he’ll no doubt get all over my cut.
“You motherfucker.”
“Ari,” I call out over my shoulder while keeping my eyes pinned on hers. When he enters from behind, I add, “Take Ares for a few.”
“Ahhh, come to Unc!” Ari takes Ares from me, and I wait until their chuckling and talking disappear before I turn myself directly to Meraki.
She lowers herself down onto the table slowly, suddenly unsure if she wants my attention.
“Firstly, yes, I did know about him. Have known since the day you started showing. Secondly, take that fucking ring off your finger before I cut it off, and I ain’t talking about the ring.”
She winces, looking down at her hand before looking back to me.
“How did you know?” She keeps the bite in her tone while tearing the ring off her finger and placing it on the table.
“You really wanna ask me that right now?”
“Yeah, Nik, I fucking do, because you walked away from me when I needed you most, and you did it with my best friend tucked under your arm!” She ends her rant in a scream, and I wait for her to cycle back into the kitchen, pull down a bottle of wine from the cupboard, and pour the red liquid into a goblet-style glass.
She takes a sip, and then another, before she finally leans against the counter, crossing her ankles and bringing her eyes to mine. It’s the first time I’ve noticed the emotion on her face, or the way her once green eyes were filled with life, humor, sass. Meraki was that person everyone went to when they needed to feel lighter because she would take a load off of people just by being present. I swallow down the snarky comment I want to make, because I know the reason why I came back now, but she doesn’t.
The chair scrapes against the floor when I stand from the table. Her eyes widen as I close the distance between us, and I catch a stray tear that rolls down her cheek with the cushion of my thumb. Bringing it to my lips, I suck the salty fluid off and then wrap my fingers behind her neck, knocking the cute little knot her hair is tied in at the base.
Leaning down to her level, I force her forehead to mine as my other hand comes to her tailbone, pulling her in closer. “I came back for you, Mer.”
Her damp lashes part as her eyes open, my lips resting against hers.
“I walked from you because I knew I was coming back, even before I found out that you were pregnant.”
Her lips quiver against mine and more tears roll over the hand that’s on her cheek.
“I don’t believe you.”
I grab her from behind the backs of her thighs and slam her onto the counter, parting her legs before shoving her up against me. “You don’t have to. I’ll prove it to you.”
“Nik, I can’t be doing this back-and-forth with you forever. I’m old. I want a life.”
“Baby, you’re not listening to me,” I murmur the words over her mouth, sucking her lower lip into my mouth as I talk. “This is it.”
“Why now?” She gives my chest a little shove, and I’m not surprised. I’d be surprised if she didn’t. “Why come back now and decide? What makes it so different?”
“I always fucking wanted this, Mer.” I step back, giving her a little space.
For now. Mainly for her safety because Meraki has a tendency to say the right things to piss me off, and I don’t know… it takes me one minute to kill someone through strangulation, and less than that to snap their neck… it’s for her own safety that I keep my distance since she more often than not triggers me for a lot longer than that.
“Since fucking when?” Her arms are flying around the place, and she’s doing that cute thing where she chews on her bottom lip.
“Since we were fucking nine years old!” I snap, glaring at her.
She pauses. “That’s a lie, and both you and I know it.”
“Is it?” I say, closing the distance once again. “Because it isn’t for me.”
“Why now?”
“Because you had to marry that piece of shit. Because all of what played out had to happen for the war between your two families to never spill over. I love you, Mer, and fuck, do I want you, but I’m Ghost too.” I come in closer. “Do you know how hard it was to fucking stay away from you and to hear the report back every night that you looked fucking miserable married to that stupid fuck? God, Meraki, I wanted to burn this whole house to the ground without you and Ares in it!”
