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“Finally,” I say, and she glares up at me.
“Finally, what?”
“Finally, you say something,” I say, frustrated. “You’ve been dancing around the subject all morning, and I’d rather just have things out in the open.”
“What is there to say?” she asks. “What is there to have out in the open? It’s simple. You want me to be yours but you don’t want to be mine. You’re just territorial. You want to go back to your old life. I’ll go back to mine. That’s what will happen when we go back home.”
“And until then?” I ask, my heart dropping.
“Until then, we’re stuck together,” she says, and pauses, rinsing out her hair without missing a beat. She looks back up at me when she’s finished, her hair long and slick down her back. “Or I could go to Dante’s.”
“You said it was too dangerous,” I say, my heart dropping even further.
She shrugs. “And you said it isn’t. Just be careful taking me, and we’ll be all right,” she says.
“Aurora,” I say softly. “That’s not what I want.”
“Well, it’s whatIwant,” she says finally. “I want to be back home. If this is all temporary, I’d rather it be over sooner rather than later.”
“You don’t mean that,” I say, staring at her incredulously, but she doesn’t answer, just getting out of the shower and grabbing a towel.
I follow her, again, grabbing a towel and slinging it around my waist as I follow her into the guest bedroom.
“You’re wrong, you know,” I say.
“Wrong about what?” she asks, putting on a nightie that I’d bought her.
I grab her wrist, turn her around. “You mean a lot to me.” Her eyes search my face. “You’re the mother of my child.”
Her face falls and she looks away. “Yeah. That’s all I’ll be to you, from now on. Just the mother of your child, right?”
“Quit putting words into my mouth,” I warn.
“That’s what you said,” she says stubbornly.
“That’snotwhat I said,” I argue, annoyed.
“So then, what did you say, Nico?”
My head is spinning from the hangover and the argument and I’m not sure how to respond. She’s right, I want to go back to my old life. But thinking about her with someone else, ever going on a date with someone else, ever letting someone else touch her... it makes me crazy.
“What do you want from me, Nico?” she asks softly, tears welling in her eyes.
“I don’t...” I pause. “I don’t know,” I say finally, dropping her hand, and she nods, sniffling, and heads into the living room. I don’t follow, sitting down hard on the edge of the bed.
Where do I go from here? Is she really done with me? Is this really the way that things end?
21
AURORA
Iknow that I have to keep my distance from Nico. He doesn’t want me. He wants to be part of the baby’s life, but he doesn’t want to be a part of my life, and I have to learn to deal with that. I have to be a part of his life for the next eighteen years but without him actually being part of my life. He’s not willing to change his lifestyle. He’s not willing to let himself fall in love. Not that I’m a prize or anything, but I’m worthy of love in my life. I’m worthy a man who will put me first, and that’s clearly not Nico.
It hurts like hell, but there’s nothing I can do about it. All I can do is keep myself protected, keep my heart safe. Or at least as safe as a broken heart can be. I have to at least keep it from shattering completely. I have to keep a little bit of it, so that I may in time heal and have something to give of myself when the right man comes. Because above all, I have to hope that the right man is out there and will come eventually, since it can’t be Nico.
It’s a long drive back to Dante’s mansion, and after about twenty minutes, Nico gives me a sideways glance. “You’re not talking to me now?”
I shrug. “Nothing to say.”
