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His haunted eyes search mine, then he screws his face up and crushes his lips to mine, kissing me forcefully. I wrap my arms around his neck, kissing him back with desperation for the precious few seconds it lasts.
Then he takes his hand back and wrenches himself from my grip, leaving me gasping as he steps back, away from me.
I rub the tender skin on my neck as I take a deep breath, my lungs burning. “Dax?”
“You need to leave.” He takes another step away from me, his face closing off, as he avoids looking into my eyes.
“I’m not leaving. You’re being ridiculous. You’re nothing like him. You have to know that. Dax?” I step toward him, but he pulls an envelope from the back pocket of his jeans and thrusts it into my hand. “What’s this?”
“Your plane ticket. You’re going back to New York.”
“What? I am not!” The paper burns into my palm as he looks away. I rip it into tiny shreds without even opening it and hurl it at him. It flutters over his t-shirt like confetti. “Fuck you! You can act like a prick all you want. But I am not leaving you.”
“It was all fake.”
It’s not his words that make me freeze on the spot. It’s his eyes. It’s the way they’ve finally met mine again, but they’re full of… nothing.
Whenever Dax looks at me, even when we first met, there was always something there. Always some fire, some light. Something that told me he feltsomething.
Now there’s nothing.
Empty, emotionless dark brown meets heartbroken blue.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not. Believe me.” His lips curl down and a muscle in his neck twitches, drawing my attention to the tiny, delicate bird on his neck.
“I can’t,” I croak. “I know you.”
“You don’t know shit.”
I snap my eyes back to his, and the darkness in them has me choking back a sob. He’s looking at me like it was all one big act. He’s detached. He doesn’t even look like Dax anymore.
“I’ve been lying to everyone for nine months. My own sister didn’t even see through it. And you think you can? Some girl who only arrived a few months ago? You don’t know me. I wanted one thing… revenge for what he took from me. I wanted to watch Julian Young get locked up, lose a part of his life like I lost mine. It’s all I ever wanted. You were just a pretty distraction along for the ride.”
I drag in a broken breath, and it’s like breathing in jagged shards of glass, each one ripping me apart more. “Don’t say that. Don’t make out like it meant nothing. Don’t lie to me, Dax.”
My body swirls with a combination of hurt, anger and pain. I’d rather him be a stone-cold murdering criminal who really was working for Julian Young than lie to me.
I can’t take anyone else lying to me.
“Don’t lie to me,” I repeat, my voice sounding strong, considering the surge of vomit I’m only just managing to keep at bay. “Anything else…anything.But don’t lie.”
Dax screws his eyes shut, a vein in his neck bulging and pulsating.
I take a step toward him, and he opens his eyes and stares at me, regret filling them once again.
Please don’t lie.
“It wasn’t an act. Don’t ruin what we had, don’t make out I’m stupid. You might have fooled Young’s gang, but you can’t fool me. I know you.”
I take another step toward him.
I just need to make him understand that I’m here for him. Finding out about Julian was a shock, I get it. He’s hurt. I can help him like he helped me.
“You don’t, Rose.”
“Stop saying that.”
