Page 42 of Velvet Thorns
I force myself to tear my gaze from the mess I’ve made of her skin and reach up to undo the ties at her wrists. I watch her closely, searching her face for any hint of emotion as she sits up, but her shoulders are hunched, and there’s a shadow of shame in her eyes.
No. Fuck that.
She doesn’t get to feel ashamed. She wanted this just as much as I did. She needed it.
“That’ll be the last time you touch me, Phoenix.”
I tuck myself away, feeling the ground rip out from under me. When she stands from the bed and turns to face me, all I see is indifference—blank, empty, like nothing just happened between us, and I despise it. I’d take her fury, her tears, hell, even her hate over this nothingness.
“That was my thank-you for the times you protected me, but this is also my fuck you for everything else you’ve done.”
I stand there, my chest rising and falling as I watch her build up her walls brick by brick.
“You can follow me. You can watch me, stalk me, stand outside my door, and call it love. You can sneak into my home when you think I’m sleeping. Keep doing everything you’ve been doing, but it’ll never get you me.” My jaw clenches, and my hands curl into fists. I go to speak, plead, but she lifts a hand. “No, you don’t get to interrupt. You don’t get my heart. You don’t get my love. You don’t get my body, and you sure as hell don’t get to call me yours. Whatever you expected from this, you don’t get it. When I walk out that door, I won’t look for you, I won’t think about you, and if I see you, it’ll be like looking at a stranger. I know you believe everything you’ve done was for me, but that doesn’t make it okay. It’s time to move on, Phoenix. Live your life and let me live mine however I choose.”
“No—”
“Yes,” she snaps, eyes gleaming with finality. “I’m going to walk out that door now, and you can do whatever the hell you want. But as far as I’m concerned, I got the closure I needed.”
My pulse thunders in my ears. “If you think I’m just going to walk away?—”
“I don’t, but I think you should because this doesn’t end how you want.”
“You’re wrong.”
“I’m not wasting my breath convincing you otherwise.” She straightens, shoes in hand, and I track every movement like a man watching his reason for breathing walk away. “Just know this is done for me.” She brushes past me, close enough that I catch her scent—still mixed with mine—and it almost kills me.
“So done that you’re walking out of here covered in me,” I rasp, desperate to claw back any piece of her.
“You want to watch me scrub you off my skin likeyou’re nothing more than a stain?” The words hit their mark—a direct shot to the heart. “Didn’t think so, and unlike you, I’m not that cruel. If what you’ve said is true, then my walking away will be punishment enough.”
Just as she reaches the door, I give her my final plea.
“Bleed if you need to. Break if you must. Just don’t leave.”
She stops dead. One heartbeat. Two. But she doesn’t look back. She doesn’t even give me the mercy of a glance. It’s like she’s already gone.
She’s three seconds from walking out of my life, and I’m three seconds from losing what’s left of my mind.
“Goodbye, Phoenix.”
I let her go. I don’t know why, maybe because some twisted part of me needs to give her this choice to see if she’ll really do it. When the door closes behind her with a click that echoes louder than any scream, I feel it like a gunshot to the chest.
She left.
Chapter 12
Phoenix
I haven’t moved.I’m paralyzed by want—like if I stare hard enough, long enough, I can manifest her. Force her to materialize right here and whisper that I’m her entire universe. That this broken, obsessive mess of a man is somehow everything she’s ever needed.
Even knowing I’m not.
Rage.
Blinding, blood-boiling rage.
Hurt.
