Page 40 of Frozen Flames

I want to remove all thoughts of that life that we shared from her mind.

I want to punch Hen in the face for triggering these worries in me!

So I leave.

I wheel myself to my room as quickly as I can, slamming the door, satisfying the adrenaline rush a little bit.

I hear a knock shortly after, but my mind is too preoccupied with my anxieties. I see Gemma walk over to my bed, and I wheel myself toward it, right in front of her.

“Gemma, promise me,please.”

I see her hard swallow, and I hate the hesitation in her eyes. “I won’t get on it. I’ll take it to a garage or something in the spring.”

“You don’t get it.”

She needs tounderstandme.

I grab her hands, hoping to convey my desperation. “Gemma, babe, I swear I’d fucking kneel if I could. I’m begging you…”

Her eyes narrow, and finally she tells me, “I promise, Harvey. I won’t ride again—”

“Promise me.”

“I promise. Shhh. You don’t need to worry. It’s me and you—always. But you need to promise me something too.”

I nod, my jaw firming up like cement, wondering what she’ll ask of me.

“You need to promise me you won’t keep shutting me out.”

Her words break something in me. Because I’ve been trying, haven’t I? To smile wider around others, to put the focus on Gemma’s days instead of my troubles.

But it still seems like no matter what I do, it’s never enough. How can I be enough when I’m not who I used to be, who she fell in love with?

I bring my thumb to her bottom lip, wanting to make her happy. “I promise, sweetheart.”

She tells me to hold on as she heads out to thank Gia and her brother-in-law, James, for their help cleaning up before she tells them goodbye. Henrik probably left right after our argument.

Soon, she’s back in my room, and the atmosphere is filled with yearning for each other.

“Don’t talk.” I shake my head, trying to gather the crumbling thoughts inside my mind. “Don’t stop this. Just don’t say anything.” She nods, and I realize howlongit’s been since we’ve fucked—the day of the accident. “Your skirt, take it off.”

The leather skirt pools at her ankles, and something about it brings me back to our first few months of dating.

She kneels in front of me, her eyes glistening with lust and desire. And yet despite seeing it with my own eyes, my brain refuses to register that she could still be attracted to me. After the accident, after losing muscle mass and looking pale from spending most of my time indoors, I simplycan’tbelieve otherwise.

But she’s here, in front of me, trying her damnedest to prove me wrong.

Maybe she’s even trying to prove herself wrong.

She crawls to me and straddles me, her hands slithering into my hair. She kisses me slowly, and my hand reaches for her pierced nipple inside her bra.

We break apart, staring at each other, then we kiss again.

A low grunt escapes my mouth, straight into hers, and I wish I could take her right now and throw her roughly on the bed.

“I missed this—I missedyou,” I whisper, letting the drugs ooze out my vulnerabilities. If she rejects me, at least I’ll know.

“There’s no reason to miss this, Harvey.” She clears her throat. “You can have this, you can haveme, any time you want. Inanyway.”

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