Page 93 of Call You Mine

His knuckles go from white to red as he releases me, my wrist stinging from the force of his grip on me, leaving a red trace behind. “Damon,” I choke on my sobs, my voice coming out in a tremulous stutter. “For me, this is real.”

A wicked, disparaging laugh leaves him. “Of course it isn’t real, Wynter. How can we even consider an actual relationship when I don’t even know who the fuck you are?”

And there it is, the fucking elephant in the room I fooled myself into believing would just disappear. Anger echoes in the sharp tone of his voice. True unfiltered fury radiates from him as he stares at me with a blatant and taunting expression.

It’s unnerving to watch him look at me this way. He’s never looked at me with such brazen hatred and annoyance. Damon’s always been different with me, showed a softer side no one ever knew existed, but this, this right here, is how the volatile Dragon stares at everyone else. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Without warning, he rushes toward me until he has me pushed up against the bar top, his groin pressing against me, letting me feel how hard he is despite all the explosive arguing. “Why was Carrington here asking you about her brother?”

My face pales and I don’t know what to say to him. “I, I don’t know. I told her I haven’t seen him since New York.”

Damon growls, “You’re lying to me, Wynter. Everything about us is a lie. How we got here, whatever the fuck this is,” he shouts, his voice slightly quaking as he points between us. “You won’t tell me what the fuck has you so scared all the damn time? You won’t tell me who it is that’s always messaging you and sending you shit. You won’t fucking tell me why you’re back or who or what you’re running from.”

I’m stunned and silent. It’s not like he’s never voiced his thoughts on the matter. The entire reason it’s taken us this long to get anywhere was because he couldn’t trust me as long as he knew I was keeping things from him.How foolish am I tothink just because he gave into the temptation of a physical relationship between us, he’d forgiven everything?

When I don’t respond, he asks once more, pressing harder into me as his palm roughly cups my face. His thumb traces tenderly over my bottom lip, ironic to the way he’s saying he feels and the darkness in his gaze. “Who are you running from, Wynter?”

My lip quivers as I shake my head, unable to say the truth out loud. I close my eyes. “No one.”

Dark laughter blares from deep within his chest. “I’m going to ask you this once more. Who the fuck are you running from, Princess?”

Tears stream down my face, an endless river of sorrow and regret flowing as I’m cornered with no way around the truth. I have to tell him. If I lie yet again, I might lose him. But if I speak the truth, I know I will. Yet there’s no other way this ends any differently for us.

Panic flutters inside me but my anger rages stronger, extinguishing my hysteria. Without thinking twice—I might convince myself otherwise—I mutter the two words I know will mark the end of us.

Inhaling a deep breath, I open my eyes and stare into the deep green pools I’m about to drown in as I seal mine and my unborn baby’s fate.

“My husband,” I tell him before my entire world comes crashing down.

Chapter Twenty-Six

WYNTER

Damon releases me, and his stunned expression destroys me. The agony etched into the corners of his eyes, marked by my treachery—at least that’s the way he sees it—makes me want to fall to the floor in despair. He doesn’t know my truth—that I was forced to marry a monster and only came to him when I thought I was free after murdering him—but now I fear he isn’t really dead. It doesn’t matter that my marriage to Enzo was nothing more than a smokescreen to fool his enemies and the men under his regime.

All Damon hears is that I betrayed him in the worst possible way. I used him for protection, practically forced him to break the vow he made to himself of keeping our relationship strictly platonic, and again here I am telling him something he never wanted to hear.

That I’m married to someone else but having his baby. I can’t stand here and stare at his pained expression for a moment longer.

Without contemplating the consequences, I push away from him, easy now that he’s dumbfounded by the situation, and rushout of the bar. I don’t stop until I step out into the chilly night. My lungs burn, an agonizing fire scorching me from the inside out. A blaze unlike anything I’d ever felt. Catching my breath and forcing my lungs to cooperate, I try my hardest to calm the fury and pain inside of me that wants to knock me out before rushing toward the now empty parking lot.

I don’t know where I’m going. All I know is I need to get out of here, and Damon won’t be coming after me.

Without stopping, I reach the end of the street, about half a mile from the bar, before I pull out my phone from my pocket. With trembling fingers, I search down my contacts list, looking for someone, at least one person I can call to come help me. Hopelessness exhausts me when I can’t find a single soul who’d come to my rescue.

I press down on Luke’s name, trying him once more, although I know he won’t answer me. As expected, the call once again goes to voicemail. Scrolling down the list, I come across Stella’s name. She’d help me, I know she would, but with a new baby at home herself, I don’t want to disturb her. Especially since I know how much they’ve gone through with little Ember.

There’s no way I can call my brother. Although our relationship is better than it’s been in years, I can’t call him, not with this. Not to tell him I’m pregnant with Damon’s baby and that he wants nothing to do with us. Which leaves me with only one person left to call.

I know I shouldn’t. I can’t put her in this situation between choosing to help me, keeping my secret, and lying to my brother. But I can’t think of any other way. Before I hit send, I open up my Uber app and request a car. Luckily, it says there’s one only two minutes away, which should be plenty of time for me to muster up the courage I need to make the call. My only other choice is to wait here for Damon to snap out of the haze caused by my lies and come find me.

Swallowing my pride, I press down on Scarlett’s name and watch the light flicker as the phone rings.

“Hello,” she answers on the third ring, her voice groggy from sleep, but no sound comes out of me. “Hello?” she says again, but still I’m speechless. “Wynter,” she mutters, her voice now more tense with worry.

My breath hitches, my voice quaking as I speak. “I need your help,” I whisper into the speaker. “Please, I didn’t know who else to call.”

A shiver creeps up my spine when she speaks again, a dog howling in the distance, making me aware of how I’m all alone in the middle of the night.

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