Page 103 of Succeeding Love

I leaned over to her, grabbing her face in my hands as I tried to get her to open her eyes. She tried to twist away, but I wouldn’t let her.

“Baby, look at me.”

“No,” her rough whisper was so low, but so fucking loud. “I can’t.”

My heart cinched seeing her lip quiver the way it did. I wanted to stop it with a kiss. I wanted to kiss away all her tears and all her sadness.

How the hell did tonight get so fucked up? Why the hell did I agree to go to that fucking charity event knowing her asshole ex might be there?

“Please, talk to me, Lynn. Please.” I gave in to one urge and kissed a tear from her cheek, only to feel a spasm of pain when she turned her face away.

“I can’t Vin. I can’t, right now.”

“You can’t what?” I asked, as my heart continued to sink. “Lynn, please.”

“I can’t look at you right now,” she put a dagger through my heart. “I can’t.”

“Why?” My voice dropped as I begged. “Because I almost punched him. Baby, he deserved it.”

“That’s not it! He deserved more than that! But that’s not it,” she shook her head, trying to escape my hands. Finally, her tear-filled eyes looked at me, piercing my soul. “That’s not it.”

“Then what is?” I felt empty. What should I do?

She shook her head again. “You really don’t know why I’m upset? Really?”

“I really don’t,” I wanted to yell. “Was it because I wanted to punch the fucker? Lynn, hefollowed youinto the fucking bathroom. He forced himself on you. Look at your fucking dress,” I grabbed the ripped seam, gripping it angrily in my fist.

That cold look returned to her eyes. “He didn’t do that to my dress.”

My brows dipped in confusion.

“It ripped when I fell. When I was trying to stop you from punching the father of my kids.”

“You knocked your lady friend to the ground, Mr. Trude. Pull yourself together.”Ivan’s statement returned to me as guilt choked me, making it hard to breathe.

She shook her head again, staring down at the rip in her seam. “Tonight was the first time since we started dating that I didn’t feel I could... I could rely on you, Vin. I don’t know how to wrap my mind around that yet.”

The knife in my chest twisted even more.

Lynn jerked her head out of my hands, and this time I let her, dropping my hands from her face. As fear and shame washed over me, I stared with wide eyes at her tear-stained face. She was still so painfully beautiful. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to fix this. I always wanted to fix everything for her. Tonight, she had to fix everything herself.

Damn it, and all I did was make everything worse. She came to get me. She was asking for my help, but I let my temper take over. Damn it.

“Please, just take me to my house,” she twisted her body to stare out the window again. “I think our emotions are still too high to talk tonight. You should go home too.”

There was a tremor in her voice. If my heart wasn’t already torn from my chest, it would have broken right then.

She asked me to take her to her house. Not home, like we had called it earlier, buther house.She was putting a line down that wasn’t there before.

“You’re my home,” I murmured to myself, trying to hold on to that sentiment from earlier. They felt like empty words now…..

Drowned In Loneliness

Nick

Earlier…..

“Sleep it off, you jerk,” Fay hissed in annoyance after Preston helped her get me out of my shoes and jacket and into my bed.

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