AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Nine
NATALIA
My darling girl.
Fuck. If that was my undoing then I had made less progress than I’d made myself think.
Gently, as if power meant nothing and this moment ceased to exist, a hand comes to my chin, forcing me to look up until my eyes meet bright blue ones.
A girl could drown in those. I know only because I used to.
But I have to remind myself that I’m not that girl and, mutinous heart be damned, I have to steel myself.
“Did you really think I could forget you?”
His voice might be low, but the sneer wrapped up in that husk is hard to miss. I can almost taste the disdain he has for me, but it doesn’t even nearly match mine for him. He’ll still think of me as the other half of him, lost in the world without him by my side, but that is so far from the truth.
“A girl can hope.”
That wasn’t the response he was expecting. The way his cheek twitches tells me the nerve I hit was exactly the one I wanted.
“But we aren’t doing this, Beckett. I think you’ve got enough to keep you occupied.”
“Then why come back?”
He pushes me against the shelves. Books rock in their places as each shelf digs into my back and he covers my body more, his hands wrapping around the shelving behind my head. He leers down at me, his stare red hot, his fury burning hotter.
A girl, no more than twenty, bookish with her glasses halfway down her nose, freezes at the entrance of our aisle. We both look as she stands no more than six feet away, trying to digest what she’s seeing here, but she clearly can’t work it out.
“There’s nothing you need down here, sunshine.”
Beckett isn’t asking her to go, he’s telling, and the dark tone matches the expression he’s throwing this stranger’s way. I know this look, watched it in action so many times before, and still, it twists my insides until butterflies erupt.
“We’re a little busy,” he states, dropping a hand to my waist.
“C’mon, hun.” Sebastian’s voice cuts the air as he appears next to the girl. “I’m sure you’d much rather see the next aisle.”
Our eyes meet across the distance, and I wish I could’ve had more of a shock value with my homecoming, but he looks tired of this game already and we’ve barely played.
“I’ll even help,” he mutters sarcastically, leading the girl away.
Beckett sniggers at the look on Sebastian’s face, knowing he’ll owe him one later.
Impatiently, I look the other way, wondering where Andreas has gotten to. The store is relatively quiet given its opening hours, and I had wondered why the hell Andreas wanted to come to a book shop so late at night. I know he’s a quieter soul, but I never imagined him to be a bookworm.
He disappeared into the rows of books, and I disappeared into my thoughts.
“Natalia.” Beckett exhales, pulling me back to reality.
I hate how my name sounds on his lips and know the devil would weep for the way I react to it. My heart thumps slowly while goosebumps race across me, and I slowly revert my gaze to his. The feel of his large hand on my hip burns through my clothes, threatening to scar me soon, and I know I’m getting lost to this moment.
Lost to him. Again.
Anger, hatred, scorn can do nothing when matched with your first love.
I am forever his victim, even when I tell myself I’m not.
I think he notices the change in my breathing when he brings his knuckles to brush alongside my cheek, pushing my hair out of my face. His hand on my hip rises, pushing my top with it until his calloused fingers touch the soft skin of my waist.
