Page 96 of Married to My Grumpy Minotaur Boss

“Come back and talk to me. Don’t you dare run out on me!” My bellow echoes around the dingy alley, bouncing back in my face until I’m finally forced to hear myself.

It’s not a comfortable feeling.

Thank fuck, she stops. When she turns, she’s brushing tears from a reddened face, her mascara already blurring beneath her eyes. “I’m not running out, though, am I?” She sniffs.

“Sure as hell looks like it to me!” My heart is pounding. My arm tingles and my fists clench with pent up anger.

“That’s just it, though, Ronan. We’re just friends. So it might look like I’m running out on you, but there’s nothing to run out on. We’re not an item, are we?”

I reel back and my hoof crashes against a trash bin. “You know what we are.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t think I do anymore. At least my heart doesn’t. I can’t be just friends with you. Or friends with benefits or lovers or whatever you want to call it. The way you hold me and touch me, I can’t! I’ll always want more than that.”

Tears stream down her cheeks.

She looks so goddamn fragile I want to gather her into my arms and stop her tears, but I have to listen to what she’s saying.

“You know my reasons, Justine. My father—”

She cuts me off. “I know about your father, Ronan, but that doesn’t stop me wanting you. It only stops you wanting me, and that hurts.”

I’m vaguely aware of a shout in the distance. I barely register a crowd of people and monsters gathering around us. People who have no doubt been waiting outside the studio collect to see what the fuss is. A flash of a photograph.

I can’t look. All I can see is the distress on Justine’s face.

“I’m sorry it had to be like this,” she goes on. “But the longer I’ve known you, the more you’ve taught me to ask for what I need. So I can’t stay silent anymore.”

Fuck.

That’s exactly what I wanted for her. I never thought about how those things applied to me. To how I treat her.

I wish I knew what to say. I’m finding it harder to breathe, let alone speak.

“So I’m asking, Ronan. Can we be more than friends? More than just casual lovers? Because that’s what I need.”

I rub my arm to shake the cold tingling feeling. The tips of my fingers feel numb. “Justine, I—” I what? I can’t give her what she needs. Only, I’m too selfish to let her go. That’s been my problem all along.

I take a step closer, longing to hold her. “Let’s talk about this. It doesn’t have to be so black and white.”

She shakes her head. “I’m sorry, Ronan. For me it does.”

She turns and hurries away from me.

I’ll be damned if I let her leave things like this. The thought physically repulses me. My body rebels against it, thrusting me forward in pursuit. When I try to follow her, though, my path is blocked, the crowd surging around her and in front of me.

“You heard the woman,” a sneering goblin woman says, pointing her bony finger in my face. “She’s had enough!”

“Get out of my way!” I push past her, but a tall man in a heavy overcoat blocks my way.

“You really fucked that up, buddy.” He shakes his head.

What the hell is these people’s problem? Why can’t they mind their own business?

My chest is heaving as I try to find a way through the crowd. At every step, the press of people grows thicker and the tightness under my sternum gets worse. “Move aside!”

They ignore me.

I’m debating the legal ramifications of simply pushing my way through, but by now, Justine is long gone. Swallowed by the crowd of idiotic onlookers. I’ve fucking lost her. This is ridiculous. She’s just overreacting. That’s all. Once she’s calmed down, I’ll be able to talk to her about this and reason with her.

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