Page 40 of Undone

She’s right. We can’t.

“Can’t what?” I played dumb, letting my lips hover above the corner of her mouth, aching for just one kiss.

One would be enough.

Right?

She repeated herself. “We can’t do this.”

But her resolve wavered as my nose brushed against hers again, tracing along the curve of her cheek before drifting to the delicate line of her jaw. Our actions betraying her words.

The anticipation between us growing with every second. The gasp she let out, the way her eyes softened when I moved closer—it was all I needed to know.

She wanted this too. Shefeltthis too.

“We’re not doing anything,” I whispered, my lips grazing her pretty, brown skin as I spoke what we both knew was a lie.

I could go back to my life and get this damn girl who plagued my thoughts out of my head once and for all. With just one kiss.

Just one.

I wanted to close the gap between us, let myself fall into her completely, but I knew now wasn’t the time.

Not when she was tangled in the wreckage of a relationship I could never fully understand. I couldn’t let my own feelings blur the line between what she needed and what I wanted.

Colt’s voice broke through the heavy silence, and Noah quickly turned away, her face an expertly crafted mask of composure.

“Sorry to interrupt. I’m heading out,” he said.

He bent down to grab his shoes but then stopped mid-motion. I sensed his shift in energy before I saw it—his usual stoic expression melted away, replaced with something unreadable. His eyes locked onto Noah’s foot, and for a second, I didn’t understand what was happening.

“Dorian,” Colt said, his tone alarmed. “Look.”

“What?” I asked. The expression in his eyes wasn’t one I’d seen from him often. It was serious, urgent. Then the recognition dawned, and I followed his gaze to her foot.

The tattoo.

Her tattoo.

For a brief moment, I kept my face impassive, but the shock from seeing a damn butterfly tattooed on her foot nearly burned me alive.

I didn’t want to believe it. But I knew what it meant.

Her startled laugh didn’t fool me. I could sense the defensive edge in her voice. “What? Why?” she asked, trying to brush it off, but the tension between us thickened. “Do you have some kind of foot fetish I should know about?”

“Noah, please.” Colt’s voice softened in a way that caught me off guard. It wasn’t like him to sound so vulnerable, especially not about something so serious.

She shook her head, trying to laugh it off. “Is this some kind of joke?” she asked. “It’s just a tattoo.”

I stepped forward. I didn’t want to touch her in a way that would push her, but I needed to know. I knelt in front of her, my eyes on the tattoo as my hand hovered near her foot.

For a beat, I hesitated, meeting her gaze with a silent question. Her eyes were wide, but then she nodded.

I grabbed her sandal, slipping it off gently, my thumb brushing against her skin as I did, needing to offer some sense of reassurance.

The butterfly tattoo burned into my mind as I stared at it.

“It’s not just a tattoo,” I muttered under my breath, my voice barely audible, more to myself than anyone else.

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