Page 6 of Forbidden Love, Part One

He surprised me when he said, “That’s related to the first question. So, you’ll have to choose again.”

I snapped my head toward him. “How am I related to you not giving your all to…” The realization started setting in as I said it out loud.

His face was impassive. Beautifully set in granite. But his eyes, they seemed to be begging me to say the words he wasn’t brave enough to.

“Am…Am I the reason you didn’t…want the relationship?”

All at once, that wall behind his eyes went back up again. His jaw ticked and I braced myself for the hurt that he was sure to cause by whatever he said next.

“When you left, it broke my heart,” he said, his gaze steely. “So, no. She couldn’t have all of me. Because there was nothing left to give her after you took it with you.”

The air was sucked out of my lungs. Even as he got up and left me on the couch for the rest of the night, it was hard to process what he’d just said.

Chapter Four

Marshall

That night I didn’t sleep peacefully. It wasn’t because I had the spare room, and the bed was about as comfortable as sleeping on hay. It was because I knew there was only a wall standing between me and the only girl I’d ever felt anything true for.

After telling her the truth about why I was being such an asshole to her, there was no way I could stick around.I’d told her she’d had the power once to bring me to my knees, and I was determined not to give her that power again.Although, even as I thought about it, I felt that control slipping away.Just seeing her could shake the world from beneath my feet. I couldn’t imagine what she’d do if she actually took advantage of that power.

It was annoying to me that the only person who could get me hard by just looking at me was also the one person I’d set a boundary on myself for. Not only was she off-limits to me because of Zane, but if I got my hands on her, I just might let her break me again. And I’d enjoy it this time.

I couldn’t touch her last night. Not with the stench of some other girl’s perfume on me. She didn’t deserve that. I took an hour-long shower just thinking about touching Trisha after I’d done things with someone else. It wasn’t right.

Though I felt a slight pang of betrayal from seeing that Zane was hooking up with Monica, the pain was only there because he hadn’t told me about it. I was his best friend, and he knew I hadn’t loved Monica when we were together, so I didn’t understand why he felt the need to keep it from me.

The only reason I felt bad about him cheating on Amelia was that it hurt Trisha. Other than that, I wouldn’t have cared. I was almost certain that the girl had cheated on him multiple times before as well. But I wasn’t one to get into other people’s relationships, that was none of my business.

I wasn’t sure when I fell asleep, but I must have because I woke up to the sun in my eyes and a glass shattering somewhere in the house. I was out of bed immediately and followed the sound.

I found Trisha standing in the kitchen before Zane’s alcohol cabinet. One of the bottles was shattered at her feet. And, by the looks of it, it had been on purpose. She glanced over at me and then went back to the cabinet.

She took out another bottle, looked at the label, then threw it idly across the room. The glass shattered on impact.

“What’re you doing?” I asked, being careful of the glass as I walked into the kitchen.

She didn’t reply. As I neared, I saw that her feet and shins bore small cuts on them, presumably from where the bottles had cut her when they broke.

“Trisha, put down the rum,” I said cautiously when I saw the blank look in her eyes.

“Why? It’s not like I’m gonna do anything with them anyway. I’m fine now, aren’t I? I’m destroying it all.”

I furrowed my brows, confused as to what she meant.

She huffed a small breath of laughter. “Not like I can do anything right at all, actually.”

She took another glass and tossed it behind her. Luckily, I moved in time to catch it before it became part of the mess.

In doing so, however, I managed to step on one of the shards of the bottles that she’d broken earlier.

I yelped out and moved back.

“Mar—” Trisha moved toward me, but I held out a hand to keep her where she was. The last thing I needed was for her to be injured too. Inspecting the ground, I pointed at her where to walk so that we could get out of here with as few cuts as possible.

“I’m sorry,” she said once I was on the couch. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what got into me. I was just so angry and—”

I shook my head. “It’s okay,” I said, keeping my voice low and avoiding eye contact with her. I couldn’t look at her after everything I’d exposed last night.

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