AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Stop it!” Noemi cried out. “He’s right.”
She faced me with her hands on her hips and a fire in her eyes. Damn, I missed that fire. Barely seen, but once it was lit, she was beautiful. My need for her nearly strangled me.
“I want to talk to you,” she demanded. “How dare you—”
“Not here.”
I grabbed Noemi’s elbow and steered her toward my office, overly conscious of her scent and the feel of her next to me as we walked the hallway.
I closed the door to my office with a sharp snap and gave her a little nudge as we walked in. She stumbled forward slightly then glared at me.
That’s it, baby girl, get angry. It would make it that much easier for me to slip into my role and be the bastard I really was.
“What are you doing? Why are you acting this way?” she asked warily.
“Because this is who I am. You knew that. I never made you any promises, Noemi.”
Her eyes narrowed. I had to say those things. I had to push her away, but I wasn’t prepared for the agony that ripped through me when I did.
It was one thing to ignore her, to pretend she didn’t exist. It was another to look her in the eye and lie then see the moisture pool in the wake of my tyranny.
Noemi stared at me and I turned away to face out the window to avoid her.
“You couldn’t even bring yourself to smile at me?”
She challenged me, wanting an explanation for my behavior, but I had none. What could I say?Because being near was like having my heart ripped out?Because I didn’t want to leave the impression that I was still interested in continuing our relationship even though as she stood there looking sweetly furious, my dick made his interest known.
I wasn’t over her, not by a long shot, and my body couldn’t pretend that I was.
“If it mattered to you, why did you look away? And don’t tell me it was because you’re shy. We passed shy that night in bungalow six when you stripped in the bedroom just because I told you to.”
She gasped, but I kept my back to her, not to be lured in by green eyes and red lips.
“This isn’t you. I know you want us to be over, but this man... this isn’t the real you. Not the real you,” she repeated, trying to convince... who? Me or herself?
“You’re wrong,” I snapped, turning to her. “That man? The one who took your virginity, who said sweet things to you on the beach?”
Pour it on. Make her hate me. Makeherbe the one to walk away because, I couldn’t. Now that I had her there, in my office, away from prying eyes, in a space that I owned,that I commanded, my fantasies of taking her on my desktop were minutes away from being realized.
“He’s the fake,” I continued harshly. “He wasn’t real. That man never existed.”
“You’re wrong,” she whispered. “I don’t know why you’re doing this. But I know you... I sawyou. That man exists. Maybe he’s another side of you, one you keep hidden and suppressed, but heisin there with that man you allow to be seen. I’ve tried to do this your way, Dante, and until I saw you in the driveway tonight, I thought I had succeeded. But as soon as I saw you standing there, everything I felt, everything I experienced with that man, came back. I know you and I know what I mean to you.”
She took a few tentative steps toward me. “I know that no man is just one thing. I know about your life, and the man that you try to hide, and now I understand more about the man you allow to be seen. But you showed me another side of yourself. You showed me a man who had heart, a man who could laugh, and tease, and ... a man who could make love to me and control my body with just a look and a touch. I know there are two different men inside you, Dante, and God help me, I want them both.”
I shielded my black heart so the filth I spewed wouldn’t affect me.
“Don’t you get it, baby girl? They don’t both want you.”
The cold I’d pulled forth wasn’t enough. Her cry cut through me. Stabbing pain shot through my heart.
I masked it like I always did because that’s who I was. An expert.
Noemi wasn’t sophisticated enough to pull off such a lie, to seduce with no regard. She wore her heart on her sleeve. Her speech was as much a declaration as a confession, even if she didn’t say the specific words. But I knew. I knew her and she couldn’t hide her feelings.
Unfortunately, the man she fell in love with was a figment of both our imaginations. He couldn’t be allowed to exist. He was a weak fool.
To keep her alive, he had to die.
