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Last night, we’d…
Well, every moment from the night before was emblazoned in my mind, even after the bottle of tequila.
I knew I wouldn’t ever forget the way he’d held me as I’d cried, his gentle touch as he’d bundled me into his car. I wouldn’t forget how he’d taken me to the apartment he was staying in, since his house was one of the ones lost, and how he’d shepherded me in through his front door.
All while I’d been losing my shit.
But even as I’d begun to get it together, embarrassment heavy in every cell thathe’dseen me that way, that he’d witnessed me break down, he’d been…
Nice.
Kind.
Treated me like he treated everyone else.
And then he’d brought out the tequila…
I bit the inside of my cheek, hard enough to taste blood. When I’d woken up to him curled around me, that big body holding me, touching me,kissingme, I’d thought he’d remembered, knew who he was in bed with.
Wouldremember.
Thought that maybe he wouldn’t come to regret fucking me.
His expression told me otherwise.
He was already regretting this and I was still in his goddamned bed.
Humiliation crawled over every inch of my body, choking me, heating my skin in a way thatkilled.
I wanted to die.
Just have the floor open up and drop me down into the seventh circle of hell.
“Harpy?” he asked, disbelief and remorse on his face, in his eyes, lacing his tone, in every tense inch of the body I’d spent hours exploring.
Memorizing him. Committing each moment of our time together to memory.
Because it had been so good, so unexpected. Because…I knew it wouldn’t last.
And, God, why did it sting so much that I wasn’thoneyorbabyorloveany longer?
Instead, I washarpy.
The annoying, aggravating woman who wasn’t wanted.
Theharpywho made Joel’s life a living hell.
I’d been living in a dream since last night. For a couple of hours, I’d been a woman this sexy, smart, kind man wanted. I’d been the womanJoelwanted. I’d beenbabyandhoneyandloveand a woman who’d made him go soft, who’d made him hold me gently and fill my ears with sweet words.
Thatwas gone. I saw it in the hard already inching into his expression, in his hands dropping to my hips and clenching.
Firmly.
Not gentle. Not soft.
Just…harpy.
Pain rippled through me, making my cheeks burn, my eyes sting, the sobs beginning to clog up my chest again.
