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I gestured aimlessly. “Everywhere. You leave them everywhere.”
“I haven’t seen any.”
I drew in a breath to respond with any number of the places where the books were always lying around and realized I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen one. “I don’t know, Chase. They’re literally all over the house. But you haven’t answered.”
His head slanted just the slightest movement, but it was enough to let me know he had no plans to. “You don’t want me to.”
“Because you haven’t looked?” I assumed bitterly.
“Because I’ve only really looked through my texts with Harper.”
My chin lowered in acceptance, and I struggled to swallow past the rock lodged in my throat. “You don’t want to know,” I said weakly, then met his hardened stare. “I haven’t told you because you don’t want to know about our life. I also don’t want to make you feel like youhaveto love me or make youthinkyou do because of stories you’re told.”
“Or is it because Harper’s right?” he asked, words taking on a cold and cruel tone. “Is it because these memories I have are really memories with someone else? Withyou? How do I know that you weren’t with someone else? That I wasn’t fighting for you?”
My stomach dropped because, as much as ithad beenour life, it wasn’t in the way he was thinking. It wasn’t recent. “Chase—”
“But, really, you could tell me anything now, and I wouldn’t know if it was real or not.”
“You would’ve never been with me if I was the kind of person who took advantage of people that way,” I snapped defensively.
“I don’t know that,” he said with a subtle shrug. “And what if Iwasin love with someone else?”
“No,” I wheezed, even as the worry that had been plaguing me for weeks gnawed at my stomach. “No, Iknowyou. Iknewyour love and your passion and every single thing you felt for me. Your life and your heart were with me, not someone else.”
“But I don’t know that,” he repeated sharply.
“I do!”
“That doesn’t mean anything to me, Scarlet,” he shouted.
My head shook wildly as I battled the emotion threatening to break free. “Tell me you don’t feel it,” I choked out. “I know you see a stranger when you look at me but tell me you look at me and feelnothing.”
One second, the kitchen was heavy with our accusations and frustrations and pleas. The weight of the unknown pressing closer and closer around us and making it hard to breathe.
The next, Chase erased the distance between us with a couple large strides and reached for me.
Hand curling around my jaw and tilting my head up to meet his just as his mouth crashed against mine.
Hard.
Fervent.
Desperate.
Stealing the last of my air and piercing that veil of resentment in a shockwave of passion and need when Chase parted my lips. ..and then everything slowed.
The kiss.
His movements.
My frantically beating heart.
His fingers trailed down my neck as he took my bottom lip between his teeth. Gently tugging before his tongue darted out to taste the same place. And I went weak.
Legs trembling as a whimper crawled up my throat and turned into a sharp, reprimanding gasp when he lifted me onto the island. A string of hissed curses bursting from him and fanning across my lips at the stark reminder of his injuries.
“Chase—”
