Page 77 of Mine to Ruin

He’s with you, I repeat to myself, he’s just being a jerk when things don’t go his way. Still, my appetite vanishes. The server comes to take our orders, but I politely decline, telling him I’m not hungry.

Kian snaps his face to me and says, “You have to eat.”

His tone rubs me the wrong way. “Don’t tell me what to do.”

“Oh, the first quarrel.” Melanie ohs in a faux sympathy, and with every second that passes, red dots my vision.

“Excuse me.” I get out of my chair and speed walk straight to the elevator with Kian on my back.

He gets in and the door closes. “Don’t leave,” he says and his muscles strain behind his jacket.

My words get caught in my throat while I battle with all my emotions inside. I push through and throw at him, “But you were in great company, and I remembered I have something to do.”

“Lying as well.” He narrows his eyes at me. “Are you still jealous?”

I get in his face and poke my finger in his chest. If I could breathe fire, he would be ashen. “I am hurt more than jealous, because you wanted to punish me when all I wanted was to bring you two closer.”

I pass him, but he grabs my arm and stops me. “Don’t try to mend something that can’t be undone,” he says in a defeated tone.

“He needs you.”

His entire demeanor shifts. “Do you want me, or are you just trying to play the mediator for my brother?”

I backtrack, his words piercing my chest. Is this what he believes? I shut my eyes and when the elevator pings open downstairs, I rush out. He doesn’t stop me this time.

I need to clear my head and I call a cab to take me to the donut shop.

It’s been three days of silence, and I am one second away from crashing through his door and shaking some sense into him. My mood ranges from cursing him to missing the insufferable, imperious alpha-hole. Everything in my life is blander without him. Suits me right for falling in love with someone like him, with our mutual lack of trust. What a pair.

And neither the girls nor Brandon, and not even Diana and Luna, succeed in getting me out of my funk.

Kian needs to apologize. Maybe he’s right, and it’s not my place to mend the two brothers’ relationship, but I love one man like the other half of my being, and the other like a brother I never had. If Kian can’t see that, I can’t help him.

Melanie is always around him, biding her time. I told Kian I trust him, but it’s like part of me waits for him to prove me right when it comes to her.

I finish the painting I’m working on, sharp edges with dark green layers. Love comes with sharp edges. Is this why it makes us feel so alive, because it can bleed us dry while we’re on its peak?

I put away my thoughts, lock up the studio, and freeze when I spot Kian leaning against the wall in the corridor, my heart slamming in my ribcage. A three days’ stubble grazes his chin; hooded eyes hiding the gray pools I have been daydreaming of since Monday peer at me.

He seeks my gaze, and he opens then clamps his mouth shut.

“I can’t stay away,” he says, resigned, as if he fought with himself hard enough and still lost.

He pushes off the wall and gathers me in his arms. I succumb to his familiar tight embrace, scent, and feel his lips on my forehead.

“I am sorry,” he says. “I am an idiot.”

My relief is so strong, I wrap my arms around his torso.

“It’s only you for me, stupid man.”

“I missed you like crazy, Ellia.”

“I was so afraid, you and…”

He tips my chin up and cups my face in his hands, his thumb brushing my cheeks.“You own me, you fucking own me. Don’t leave me again. I have survived a lot, but I can’t survive your absence one more day.”

I believe him. It’s the same for me. He came, he’s here, and some of my inner conflict fades into embers.

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