AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Fine." I threw my hands up, exasperation lacing my voice. "There's something there, Kylo. Are you happy now?"
His expression crumbled for a moment, revealing a hurt that cut deeper than I'd expected. "Do I look happy to you?"
"About as happy as a cat in a bathtub," I replied but my sarcasm fell flat against the vulnerability I saw in him.
"Is this a joke to you?" His voice held a tremor, barely perceptible, but it was enough to make my heart skip a beat. "Because I'm not laughing, Averill. I can't just stand by and watch you?—"
"Watch me what?" I interrupted and my own anger flared. "Live my life? God forbid Averill Winslow makes a decision without consulting her overprotective police partner."
"Overprotective?" He took another step, close enough now that I felt the anger rolling off of him in waves. "I'm trying to protect you from making a mistake that could ruin everything we've worked for."
"Protect me, or control me?" The question slipped out before I could stop it, and I saw it hit him like a punch to the gut.
"Control you?" Kylo's voice broke, and he raked a hand through his short brown hair. "You think that's what this is about?"
"Isn't it?" I challenged, but a part of me—the part that remembered every late-night stakeout and shared secret—whispered that I was being unfair.
"Jesus, Averill." He leaned against the wall opposite me, his posture sagging. "I don't know how to make you see that I care about you. That I?—"
"Care about me so much that you can't trust me to handle my own shit?" My words were a snarl, and I hated the bitterness that coated them.
"Trust isn't the issue. It's—" He stopped short, his eyes searching mine.
"Go on," I urged and my pulse thrummed in my ears. "Finish your sentence."
"Damn it, Averill!" Kylo’s voice cracked, a fault line opening between us. "I only said that because—I'm in love with you, okay? There—I admitted it. And it scares the hell out of me."
The confession hung heavy in the cramped space, every word carried the weight of unspoken fears. I wanted to laugh it off, to bury it under layers of sarcasm, but the honesty in his admission pinned me silent.
Tears—traitorous and hot—streaked down my cheeks and cut through the layers of foundation like rivers carving canyons.
"I'm just... shattered pieces pretending to be whole." The words tumbled from my lips, raw and unfiltered, as I met Kylo's stormy gaze. "You two—damn it, you've seen parts of me I buried under concrete."
He stood still, arms crossed, a statue carved from pain and jealousy.
"I never... God, I never let anyone in because who would want a girl more familiar with death than life?" My laugh was bitter, my humor as dark as the night sky outside. "But you two idiots crashed through my defenses like a wrecking ball."
"Av..." Kylo began, but I cut him off with a sharp gesture.
"No, let me finish. I feel something for both of you—something wild and terrifying that defies logic or reason." I swallowed hard and searched his face for any sign of understanding. "It's like I've been colorblind my entire life, and suddenly the world is bleeding reds and golds so vibrant it hurts. Most people spend their lives searching for one person to love them," I continued, my voice steadier now, even though it felt like I was confessing sins to a jury more than bearing my soul to a man I cared about. "And here I am, greedy enough to fall for two. Who am I to argue with what this damaged heart wants?"
The room felt charged with an electricity. It crackled between us, a current of sexual tension and profound connection that could power the city for a year—or burn us all to the ground.
"Say something," I felt more vulnerable than I'd ever been willing to admit. "Please."
Kylo's jaw clenched. I could almost hear the cogs turning in his head, could almost see the invisible threads that tied us together stretching to their limits.
"Damn it, Averill," Kylo finally said, his voice rough as gravel. "This isn't how things are done."
"Since when have we ever done anything by the book?"
And as we stood there, swallowed by the hush of anticipation, I couldn't help but question every choice that had led me to this moment. Choices that had splintered the group, strained relationships to breaking points, and left me bare before two men who somehow held fragments of my fractured soul in their hands.
It was tense, the air thick with words unsaid and feelings unexplored. Like we'd all met before, in another life, another time, destined to repeat the same dance until we got the steps right.
"Let's just... let's just think about this," Kylo murmured, his eyes never left mine.
"Think away," My voice was a groan, and before I knew it, my hand had reached for the cool of the front door handle."Matter of fact? I'll give you all the time you fucking need."
