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“Dusty?”
He shoved the slider closed with a bang.
What the fuck am I doing? She’s still my friend’s little sister, and I’m nothing but trouble for her. I can barely keep the thoughts at bay; I don’t want to drag her down into the abyss with me. I’m supposed to be saving her. Get ahold of yourself, Dusty.
He put as much distance as he could between them, pacing across the room. Usually when he had feelings and thoughts he couldn’t control, he’d go for a run until he was so exhausted sleep consumed him, but he couldn’t do that here when they were trying to lay low, so he dropped to the floor, and started doing push-ups, hoping they’d have the same effect.
Stan strolled in and stared. He pulled the toothpick from his mouth. “Weren’t you just out in the pool with Asia?”
“Yep,” came his answer as his breathing heaved and his muscles burned with his exertions.
“And now you’re in here doing pushups?” Stan chuckled. “Boy, you are so screwed with this chick.”
Dusty vaulted to his feet. “Stay out of it.”
“Woo-ee,” Stan said, looking out the sliders. “That is one tiny bikini.”
Dusty couldn’t take anymore of Stan’s torment, and he stalked up the stairs with Stan’s laughter following him
“Run, boy. Run.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Asia stood looking at herself in the mirror as she towel-dried her hair. The warm shower had done little to ease the fire Dusty had set ablaze with his touch.
She shook her head.Get ahold of yourself. You’re acting like some wanton whore.
Besides, he was putting her through the same motions he had in the past. Pull her in. Make her feel like he wants her. Then leave her confused and unsure of herself. The next step was to push her away like she was unwanted. Well, she wasn’t about to let him rip her heart out again.
She thought back to that summer. They’d sneak off and spend as much time as they could together. Dusty had only had a few days before he had to report for his next phase of training.
The day he’d come to say goodbye, Asia had begged him to make love to her. He’d refused, saying he didn’t want to do it like this, that she deserved her first time to be special and not in some car parked at a lookout. At the time, she’d thought he was being honorable, but she should have known that was the first warning of what was to come. The clouds had opened up, and a downpour had fallen as if it already knew the heartbreak she’d soon face.
They’d promised to write, and she’d promised to wait for him.
It made living in her home bearable, knowing he would come back to her. He’d rescue her out of her hell hole and they’d ride off into the sunset. How naïve she’d been.
They had kept to their word at first. She wrote to him every night, and he seemed to write just as often. They wrote about their plans and dreams for when they’d be together again. They wrote of their feeling for each other and the trials they faced apart. But as time passed, she could sense him pulling away from her. His letters seemed to get shorter. The words he used were more generic and unfeeling.
Then one day, the final letter came. It was short, but the words left a deep wound.
Asia,
You deserve more than I can offer you. I don’t love you anymore. You need to move on with your life.
Dusty
Who knew five little words could hurt so bad?
I don’t love you anymore.
She’d written to him, asking him to explain. She asked what she’d done. What had gone wrong? Had something happened at training?
But he never bothered to answer. He just left her feeling as foolish then as she did now after finding out about Nico.
She shook her head, clearing the thoughts. She couldn’t go back down that dark hole. She’d just have to steel herself against his next pull.
A saying of her grandmother’s came to mind.Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
