Page 44 of Merry Me
“Don’t say things like that,” I said, my voice cracking under the weight of it all. “You don’t mean them.”
His brow furrowed, that cocky grin nowhere in sight. He pushed off the wall and stepped toward me, each movement slow, deliberate—like I was a deer about to bolt and he didn’t want to spook me.
“What if I do?”
I instinctively stepped back, only to be stopped by the wall behind me. The cold seeped through my clothes, but I barely felt it. He was too close now. Not quite touching…but close enough that I could feel the tension crackling in the space between us like static before a lightning strike.
“We’re over, Easton,” I said, trying to sound firm. Like I believed it. “Remember? We agreed it was for the best. It’s been a long time. We don’t need to do this. We don’t need to rehash things just because of this wedding.”
He tilted his head, eyes narrowing. “Weagreed?”
The sarcasm hit hard, sharp as sleet.
“I don’t remember getting a say in it at all, actually.”
My breath caught, shame threading through me like smoke. I looked away, but that only made it worse…because now I could feel his gaze travel across my face, lingering at my mouth like he could still taste me there.
“Regardless, Easton. We’ve been over for a long time.”
The words came out stronger than I felt, because if I had one more second to breathe him in, I was going to forget how sentences worked.
“Then why do I feel like this?”
His voice was low now…rough, frayed around the edges like it had been rubbed raw by years of silence. He moved closer, slow and deliberate, like he was stalking a truth he didn’t want to admit.
“Why can’t I stop thinking about you? Tell me when this is supposed to leave my system, Natalie, because fuck knows I’ve tried.”
My heart thudded so hard I was sure he could hear it. Maybe the whole damn town could.
The rawness in his voice knocked the breath from my lungs, scraping away every wall I’d spent the last two years trying to build. His gaze locked on mine, searing and desperate, and so heartbreakingly real it felt like a punch straight to the soul.
He was too close now. His scent, pure temptation, wrapped around me like a cloak, dragging old memories out of their shallow graves.
“We’ve both moved on,” I forced out, but the words sounded tinny. Weak. Like I was trying to convince the wrong audience. Namely, myself.
“You have a whole other life now.”
“A life that feels like nothing when you’re not in it,” he said, stepping even closer, his voice like fire wrapped in silk. “Guess what, Trouble? I was right. None of it matters if you’re not there.”
I blinked up at him, my pulse hammering. An alarm screamed in my brain.Danger, Natalie, Danger. But my body wasn’t listening. It had gone rogue the second he’d said my name.
He was everywhere. His heat, his breath, the brush of his coat against my shirt, the way his eyes didn’t lookatme, butintome. I felt stripped down to my most vulnerable layer.
“You don’t mean that,” I whispered, even as my voice trembled. Because I wanted so badly to believe he did. That this wasn’t just a heat-of-the-moment confession or some whiskey-laced nostalgia.
He reached out, his fingers brushing my cheek, and I felt it allthe way to my knees. I shivered…not from the cold, but from the soft reverence in his touch.
And then I leaned into it. Just a little. Just enough.
I shouldn’t have.
An image flashed in my mind. Him on the red carpet beside his first costar, Raylyn Lareux. Her perfect hair, her even more perfect collarbone, his arm slung casually around her like he belonged there. I’d stared at that photo for an hour, trying not to crumble. Then I’d gone out and let some faceless guy kiss me, trying to drown out what I’d seen.
Just in case you were wondering…I’d still felt everything.
“We’ll get it out of our systems,” I blurted, the idea crashing into me like a drunk wedding guest. Desperate, messy, maybe genius.
Easton blinked. “What?”
