Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
I’d been so satisfied in the loneliness.
Pacified in the solitude.
A quiet punishment that I would languish in forever.
I reached out and caressed my thumb gently over the tattoo on her wrist. Wishing I didn’t know full well what it meant. A tremble rolled through her at my touch.
“You were never supposed to miss me.” It was grit.
Disbelief filled her features. “Did you think I wouldn’t? Did you think you’d walk away, and I would forget you?”
Shame clutched me in a fist. “No. You were supposed to hate me.”
Pain slashed through her expression, and she reached up and ran her fingertips down my jaw.
Fuck, I needed to push her away.
But it felt so good.
The barest brush against the seclusion I’d sentenced myself to.
“I could never hate you.”
She would if she knew.
Didn’t seem to make a difference because I was drawn.
Compelled.
Pushing deeper into her orbit.
Her back thudded against the hallway wall as I towered over her. Too close but unable to move away.
“Need to give you somethin’.” The words creaked out of me.
A confession.
Regret and grief and the barest flicker of surety.
Eager anticipation rippled through her as she peered up at me.
Her tongue stroked anxiously over her lips. “Okay.”
That ball of razors in my throat rolled, slashing and cutting on its way down to the pit of my stomach as I dug into my front pocket and pulled out the small velvet bag.
Could feel the crash of confusion twist through Daisy before she expelled a soft gasp when I dumped the ring into the palm of my hand.
For a moment, we both just stared at it, and I swore I could feel the circle searing into my flesh.
A scourge and a blessing.
“It was my mother’s. The last thing I have left of her.” The words broke on my tongue.
“Oh, Cash.” Awe wisped from between her lips.
“It’s really tiny,” I choked, overcome by emotion at the sight of it. “I remember the way my father tried to convince her to get an upgrade on their twentieth anniversary.”
The small engagement ring wasn’t even close to being flashy. Just a simple gold band with a small round diamond.
“She refused. Said the only thing that mattered was what it represented. The promise he made when he asked her to marry him. Figured it could represent the promise I made to you.”
Tears blurred Daisy’s eyes. “Cash…are….are you sure?”
“Can’t imagine anyone else wearing it.”
“I’d be honored,” she whispered.
It was a wonder I could pick it up with the way I was quivering, and I took Daisy’s dainty hand and slid my mother’s ring onto her finger.
The diamond glinted in the bare light. A strike of something profound.
Lightning that pierced me somewhere deep.
“It fits,” I muttered as I stared down at it on her finger. Guess somewhere deep down, I knew that it would.
Daisy sniffled. “It’s beautiful.”
“She loved you, too, you know.” My voice cracked with every word.
Daisy let go of a soggy laugh as she peeked up at me. “That was when she wasn’t chasing me out of your room.”
Couldn’t help but return one, mine hoarse and raw. “She never believed we were only friends.”
Intensity billowed between us as Daisy tipped that face fully up in my direction. “Is that what we were, Cash? Just friends?”
“My Little Wallflower,” I groaned as I dropped my forehead to hers.
Our breaths turned shallow.
“I lo—”
“Don’t say it.” I cut her off as my entire body winced with what she was about to say.
She couldn’t.
Not when I wasn’t worthy of it.
“I…when we—”
“Don’t. Please. It only makes it harder.” I inhaled one more breath of hers, this woman oxygen and light, before I finally pried myself away. Doing my best to resurrect the barriers I shouldn’t have toppled.
“Have to go out tonight,” I grated.
Surprise jerked Daisy back, pain lancing into the wrinkle that dented her brow.
I was the fool who reached out and tried to soothe it away, the pad of my thumb running the little line. “Have some business I have to attend to.”
“The same business you have every Saturday night?” I could feel her hedging. Searching for a way in.
I realized this was the third Saturday she was here, my routine becoming clear.
I gave a tight nod. “Told you there are things you don’t know about me.”
“Are you…” Concern twisted through her features. “Does it put you in danger?”
“Don’t worry about me, Daisy. Only thing that matters is you’re here. That you’re safe. You know no one can get into this house, but I’ll have another guard posted outside just to be sure.”
“I’ll hold it, Cash. I’ll hold who you are if you’ll let me.”
“I can’t give you that part of me.”
Couldn’t give her any of me.
I needed to remember it.
Disappointment flashed, but she forced a bright smile, though she was looking at me the way she used to.
With a plea.
A plea I should have recognized earlier.