Page 76 of Stolen Seconds

His words hung in the air between us, our impending downfall.

There was a calm that had settled within me, and I knew there was no turning back from this.

It was pouring when I stepped outside, the rain seeping through my clothes in seconds.

I spotted Irina shutting the trunk of her car before making her way to the driver’s side.

As she reached for the handle of the door, I slapped my palm against it to stop her from opening it.

“What about us?” I asked, my voice nearly drowned out by the rain pattering against the pavement.

She stilled; her blonde hair plastered against her back.

“I don’t care about any of it. Whose daughter you are or what you’ve done. None of it matters to me,” I pushed, willing her to meet my gaze. “I’d raise hell for you if it meant you were mine.”

My chest hurt from how hard it was pounding. If she left, I had a feeling she’d take my heart with her.

“You’ve completely and utterly ruined me, Irina.”

Her sharp intake of breath was emphasized by the first strike of thunder.

I stepped around, my own breathing growing erratic as I cupped her delicate face in between my hands and rested my forehead against hers. “Iam yours.”

The storm continued to pick up speed, cooling the heat radiating off me.

Her face was distraught, piercing blue eyes darting between mine in helplessness. She curled her fingers around my wrists and squeezed. “ButIam not yours, Luca.”

My heart skidded to a stop as I nodded my head. “You are.”

“Do you hear yourself?” She laughed cruelly, pulling back but still holding onto me. “You sound crazy.”

“You’ve made me crazy!” I blazed at her, tilting her head up to cement that into her brain. “You drive me insane with your denial and yourfuckinglies.”

“Then what would you like me to say?” She squinted against the unforgiving rain. “We fucked once, and it meant nothing.Weare nothing.”

“You’re deflecting. It was more than that and you know it.”

She’d been vulnerable with me and trusted me with her pain. And even though she was lying again, the bite of her words sank deep into my skin.

“Am I? Or are you too dense to not know when someone doesn’t want you.” Her mouth pursed as if contemplating her next words.

She completely stepped away from my embrace, her eyes frosting over in malice as she regarded me, and it felt as if a part of me disintegrated.

“Your own father didn’t want you, littering your body with scars to prove it.”

Thunder reverberated in the distance as a tender pangstruck me. I stumbled back, my face slacking as her words pierced me.

I’d never taken any of her viciousness to heart, but this? This wascruel. I’d opened up to her about my past and she used it against me, plunging a knife so deep into my chest, I felt it mold into every crevice.

There weren’t any words left in me to give her, none that would change her mind and make her understand that it didn’t have to be this way.

With one last glance in her direction, I walked away. I was done chasing after her when all she did was string me along.

If she ached for me as intensely as I did for her, she would come to me.

This time I wouldn’t be the one to pursue her.

Chapter 21

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