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“Even if I believed you, I’m done giving you chances. You’ve stabbed me in the back way too many times. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. In our case, it would bethreetimes. Love made me blind, but not anymore.”
“It’ll be different this time—”
“No, it won’t,” she said with a laugh. “You’ve had a full month to come get me, and you never did. And youneverwould have come if you didn’t see me with someone else. The fact that Bartholomew is one fine piece of man just pissed you off even more. You know what? I’m glad you saw us together. Maybe now you understand that just because I’m worthless to you doesn’t mean I’m worthless to other people.”
Her words were a punch that broke my nose. “I don’t think you’re worthless. But I’ve come to realize how worthless I am without you.”
Her eyes didn’t soften. She didn’t melt. Nothing.
My words literally had no effect.
“You must know that I stayed with Grave over the holidays.”
The thought of them alone together for weeks made me insane, even when I had no right to be.
“I went straight to him because I didn’t know what else to do. I was so broken that all rational thought left my body. He let me stay in a guest room, and I spent those two weeks sleeping and crying…then sleeping and crying some more.” With her arms crossed over her chest, she cocked her head slightly. “Even made a pass at him, just to hurt you.”
I did my best to keep a straight face, but I knew my eyes betrayed me.
“He turned me down.”
Grave had failed to mention all of that.
“You’ve hurt me more than anyone else I’ve ever met. The fact that you’re here is such a slap in the face. To come here and try to fuck with meagain…”
“I’m not fucking with you—”
“Go home, Cauldron. Go back to your girls on your yacht. I don’t want to see your face ever again.”
“I haven’t been with anyone else.”
Her look was so subtle that I could have missed it if I had blinked. It was a slight shift in her eyes, a softness that faded the tension set in her face. It was a tiny glimmer of hope, but hope, nonetheless.
I still had a chance.
“Get out of my apartment,” she said. “And don’t come back.”
18
ELISE
The restaurant was quiet. Couples talking among themselves. Cutlery lightly tapping against the dishes. Candlelight casting small shadows across the room. Grave reached for his wineglass and took a drink.
Every movement he made was sexy, from the delicate way he handled the glass in his hand to the way he rubbed his callused fingers over his three-day shadow. He was in an olive-green long-sleeved shirt, my favorite color on him. It complemented his dark features, his tanned skin and espresso-colored eyes. He seemed to notice the intensity of my stare because he met my gaze and didn’t look away.
God, this man was fiiiine.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
I was too embarrassed to say it, so I grabbed my glass and looked at the contents. “That you’re a hunk.” I took a drink and kept my gaze averted, but I felt his hot stare on my face. All I ever did was compliment this man. I should be smart and keep my cards close to my chest, but all my feelings spilled out every time I was with him. When I finally had the courage to look at him again, he wore a slight smile.
Silence passed between us for a while. The waiter brought our meal, and of course, Grave had ordered the biggest steak on the menu. We dined in silence, the two of us at a place in our relationship where a conversation wasn’t necessary.
After a while, he spoke. “Cauldron suspects Camille has returned to her former line of work. I got her a cushy job as a sales associate at an art gallery, but when I called down there, they said she never showed up.”
He didn’t ask me a question, but he was definitely interrogating me. He had that way about him, to say one thing but imply something else.
That thunderous gaze settled on me, piercing through flesh and bone to the soul underneath.
