Page 60 of The Stolen Moments Trilogy

She shakes her head and sways a little. I grab her by her waist, my hands closing around her almost entirely. I’ve always loved holding her like this.

“Where’s Kate?”

She shakes her head again and looks around the room in search for her. She deflates when neither of us spots her, and I wrap my arm around her. “Come on, let me take you home.”

Emilia shakes her head. “I didn’t bring my access card. I can’t get into the dorm,” she says, pouting. “I’d have left ages ago if I could have.”

She looks angry and jealous, and I love it way too fucking much. “Come on, baby. Let’s go.”

As soon as we’re outside, I sweep her into my arms and carry her to my apartment a few blocks down. She rests her head against my chest and closes her eyes.

“Are you sure you can just leave Lisa?”

I chuckle. “Why do you say her name like that?”

Emilia pouts, and I bite back a smile. “She’s nice. And pretty.”

“She is, but you don’t sound very pleased about it.”

Emilia glares at me. “I’m not. I wish she was a bitch.”

I burst out laughing. “Why would you want that?”

Emilia leans back a little and looks into my eyes. “Because I don’t want to like her. I don’t want to like the girl that took my place in your life. I don’t want to be happy for you. I don’t want to acknowledge that she’s better for you than I ever could be.”

I pause with her in my arms right in front of my door and put her down carefully to grab my keys. She stares at the ground, looking lost as fuck. I inhale deeply and unlock my door before carrying her into my apartment. I set her down on my bed and she kicks off her heels. She’s quiet and I have no idea what to say to her either.

“Emilia, you know Lisa didn’t replace you, right?” I say eventually, my voice soft. “She’s her and you are you.”

I don’t know how to explain it any better than that, and I’m not sure why I even want to. Emilia and I aren’t what we used to be. I owe her nothing.

“Are you dating her?”

I knit my brows and shake my head. “No. It’s not like that between us. She’s just a friend.”

Emilia frowns and looks up at me with her big blue eyes, the hopelessness in them hitting me right in the chest.

“Just a friend, huh? Is she the friend that left all those kiss marks on your body?”

I freeze and swallow hard, unable to answer her. I suddenly feel like I’ve wronged her somehow, when I know I haven’t.

“I wish it were me,” she says, her voice so soft I almost missed her words.

“You don’t,” I say, my tone harsh. “Don’t say shit like that so thoughtlessly, Emilia. I’m trying my best to be friends with you again, to salvage the friendship you and I both wrecked. Don’t complicate things now.”

She looks up at me with heartbreak in her eyes and I immediately want to take my words back.

“I know, and I’m sorry, Carter. But I just need to know… do you love her?”

She looks at me like I’m holding her life in my hands. For a second I consider lying to her just to make sure she and I don’t end up in the same situation we’re only just recovering from, but I can’t do that to her.

“No, Emilia. I don’t love her. I stopped believing in love years ago.”

She looks up at me with a small smile on her lips, a tiny spark of hope lighting up her eyes. Part of me wants to crush it as soon as I see it, but I can’t. I can’t, because it’s Emilia, and she might have broken my heart, but she still owns my soul.

Chapter 8

Emilia

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