Page 120 of Cuffed By Love

“She obviously means so much to you that you couldn’t overlook the fact she slept with me. Get a grip of yourself, Devin. You’re not teenagers anymore; you can’t go around beating on every guy that wants her. Oh, and judging by the state of her, I’m going to assume she doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore, either.” Levi declares sourly before he turns and walks off toward his room. “Least when she was with me, she was crying with laughter, not devastation, arsehole.”

I stood there and let Levi’s words sink in and thought back to how much I’ve made her cry. We’ve always butted heads when it came to Mira but not like this, not enough to fall out and get into a punch up over it. The idea of losing Mira to Levi or anyone hurt. As much as I hate to admit it, my brother was right. She’s not a piece of cattle that I own, nor is she a toy that we can fight over until one of us wins. This is a choice she needs to make.

With that in mind, I head out of my penthouse. I need to talk to her, and I can’t wait till tomorrow. So twenty minutes later, I pull up outside her place and knock on the door. Wyatt answers it, and the moment he sees me, his face falls, and he looks pissed, pissed enough to want to punch me. “What do you want, King?”

“I need to talk to Mira.”

Wyatt shakes his head. “She doesn’t want to see you. I think you’ve said all there is to say.”

I close my eyes and place my hand against the door when he goes to close it. “Wy, please, man. I need to speak to her. I fucked up; I know that. I spoke out of anger, but I don’t want to lose her.” I plead, and he shakes his head.

“Devin, in the time that you’ve been back, that girl has had three breakdowns. I think it’s clear that you’re not good for her, so let her be, man. She’s been through enough the last two years as it is.” Wyatt asserts grimly.

“Wyatt, I’m not leaving until I talk to her. If she decides she doesn’t want to be with me, then that’s fine, but at least let me apologise.” I express beseechingly, hoping and praying he’ll see the remorse on my face and let me in.

“Fine, but if you hurt her again, I swear to God Devin, I will throw you out on your arse.” I nod in response to his warning and walk in when he opens the door for me to enter. “She’s in her room.”

“Thanks, Wy,” I squeeze his shoulder gratefully and skip up the stairs to her bedroom. I tap on her door a couple of times and open it. The smell of her surrounds me instantly, and I inhale deeply, filling my lungs with it. I see her curled up in a ball on the bed, watching TV.

“Wy, I said I’m not hungry.” She utters with a heavy sigh. Her eyes fixed on the screen.

“Not even for doughnuts?” Upon hearing my voice, Mira lifts her head and looks back at me. I detect the sorrow swimming in her eyes, and I hate myself for being the one that made her feel that way. Not that I’m fairing much better myself.

“What do you want, Devin?” Mira sits up. I recognise the oversized hoodie she’s wearing. It was mine. It makes my heart glow knowing she’s kept it all these years. I set the box of doughnuts I bought on the way over on the side and moved over to her bed.

“I’m here to apologise.”

Mira scoffs sourly with a shake of her head. “You’ve been doing a lot of that lately, haven’t you?”

I nod and rub the back of my neck, “I have. For some reason, I can’t seem to stop screwing things up with you.” I admit with a defeated sigh. “The last thing I ever want to do is hurt you, Mira.”

“You don’t want to hurt me, yet you can’t seem to help yourself, Dev. You just keep taking a swing without thinking about the consequences and the effects your words have on me. I’m not your doormat.” Mira explains morosely, her eyes glistening while she pulls her knees to her chest.

“Of course you’re not, babe, and it was never my intention to make you feel as though you were.” I crawl up on the bed and take her hand into mine. The sleeve is so long it covers her hand. I push it back so I can play with her fingers. “I’ve never been an overly jealous guy, you’re the only one that manages to bring out that side of me. I can’t control it, Mira.”

“Devin, I have a past. I’m allowed to have a past just like every other person in the world. I can respect the fact that you would feel uncomfortable at the thought of me being with Levi, but as I said, on some level, you always knew, but you pursued me anyway. I didn’t chase you. I wasn’t the one touching and kissing you, telling you how much I wanted you. So, you had no right to turn around and make me feel like shit over it when we were never supposed to be anything in the first place.” Mira defends dully, pulling her hand back from mine and fumbling with the sleeve of the grey Nike hoodie.

“The only reason I agreed to see Levi casually is because I didn’t expect anything to ever happen with you. Therefore I didn’t want to get involved with either of you because I knew this would happen.” She adds, resting her chin on her knee and closing her eyes.

“Mira, do you have feelings for Levi?”

Please say no. Please, Mira, say no.

Mira shrugs her shoulders, “I don’t know.”

My shoulders drop. I watch Mira closely, already dreading the answer before I even ask the question. “Do you have feelings for me?”

Mira just looks at me for a long moment, and I wait on tenterhooks for her to answer. “Do you have feelings for me?”

I search her eyes, “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.” I reach up and brush a strand of her hair away from her face. “You said you wanted to be mine,” I whisper, kissing along her jaw. “Were those just empty words?” I feel her head shake a little as I near her lips, “Answer me, do you have feelings for me?”

Mira stares into my eyes, my lips a breath away from hers. “You wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t.” A deep feeling of joy surges through me at her response. I close the tiny gap between our lips and kiss her. Fucking hell, it feels so good to have her lips against mine again. Just as I’m about to deepen the kiss, she pulls back and licks her lips. “Dev, stop.” I pull my head back and look at her. “I have feelings for you, but I don’t want to be with you.”

I draw away. I feel like I’ve been slapped hard across the face with a wet fish. “What?”

“There’s no future for us, Devin, and I’m not interested in seeing how things go when I know how this is going to end, and so do you. So I can’t offer you anything more than friendship. And before you go off the rails and think I’m choosing Levi, I’m not. I don’t want to be with either of you and sure as shit don’t want to be the girl who comes between two brothers.”

“You can’t be serious?” I ask deadpan, and she nods. “Do you honestly think we can go back to being just friends after what we did the last few days? I don’t want to be your friend. I spent years trying to get out of the fucking friend zone, and you think I can just switch off my feelings and go back to being best friends with you, Mira? I can’t do that.”

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