AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What?” I snarl the word. And I round on him.
Leo, a man scared by no one takes a small step back, probably because he doesn’t want to get into a fight. But he just looks at me. “If you hurt my sister, if you do that, I will kill you.”
“Hurt is part of a relationship.”
He immediately lights up, and I think about clocking him. “So, we’re not wrong, about you and her?”
“Go to hell.” I stalk off to the kitchen because it’s close enough and it’s away from Mia. I don’t need her overhearing another fucking conversation.
“Christian?”
“Leo, I’m not sure this is up to me.” I sigh.
He shakes his head. “You don’t let anyone push you around.”
Pausing in the midst of making coffee I glare. “I’m not.”
“So, you lied.” He leans a hip against the island, knowing full well I’m considering hurling the empty mug in his face.
Fuck me. “This is more complicated than the simple answer.”
“Do you love her?”
Do I? It’s a place I don’t let myself go near where she’s concerned and I’m not sure why.
“Not your business.” I turn and shove the cup under the nozzle on the machine and press a button “And love isn’t enough unless she allows it.”
And maybe I think it’s not enough at all.
“There are offers for her,” Leo says.
I move before I know I’m doing it and I have my hand fisted in his shirt and him pressed against the wall in seconds flat. “She isn’t for fucking sale. She belongs to me.”
“Then—”
“It’s complicated,” I snarl.
There are confidences I will break, but what she told me, it’s not for him. Or for anyone. Not unless Mia shares and she won’t.
And it strikes me as I let him go and turn away, hands on hips, that maybe I haven’t been listening. Maybe I pushed hard instead of letting her go, letting her find her way.
I want that way to be me. But maybe I’m as bad as the monsters.
She fucking used the word banana on me.
“Excuse me.” I flicker a glance at Leo and stalk by him.
Mia is coming down the hall right as I go in search of her. I need to let her go. Make it easy. But her eyes are so fucking vulnerable when they touch mine, I almost tumble to my knees.
“Mia, you’re worth everything,” I say not realizing I’m going to say them until I do. “So much, I’m walking away. You know where I live.”
And with that, I go upstairs.
She doesn’t follow.
* * *
When I come back down, I’m more than aware I’m a fucking idiot, and what I said? Jesus Christ, idiot really doesn’t begin to describe me. I’m thinking coward, unworthy, boneheaded. Maybe full of feelings I don’t know how to deal with.
