Page 76 of Defy

“That isn’t fair. I made promises. I can’t break them. Don’t you think I want to prove my innocence?”

“So my opinion on your innocence matters now? I thought you believed I questioned your involvement in Randolph’s murder.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Not good enough.” I pointed in the direction of our bedroom. “I suggest you go have a nap. You look exhausted from whatever you engaged in tonight, and I know you have a shoot later today.”

“So that’s it? You’re letting it go. No forcing the issue of where I went tonight?”

What good would it do when I knew she wouldn’t give me the answers to the questions I asked?

“You wanted punishment, Sophia. I’m giving it to you. Until you accept what we are to each other, you don’t deserve a moment of my time.”

“Then I suppose you won’t be here when I wake up?”

It killed me to be away from her. However, it was time to accept the more I caged her, the harder she’d fight to escape.

There was no winning for either of us.

I shook my head. “Probably not. I have some things to handle at the office and can only do so much work from home.”

“I see.” Her eyes glazed over with wetness, and then they cleared as she pulled back her emotions. “I’ve occupied too much of your time over the last few weeks. I apologize for bringing chaos into your life.”

She grabbed her bag from the counter and angled her body toward the bedroom.

Oh, for fuck’s sake. This conversation had gone to hell and back.

I stepped in her path. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. All I want is for you to share things with me.”

“There is only one thing I haven’t told you. You know everything else.”

“It’s one piece that will prove your innocence.”

“To who? The authorities or you?” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I believed you when you told me about Maria. I never doubted your truth even once. And even when rumors, speculations, and everyone around me tried to convince me to stay away from you, I accepted you as you were.”

“Sophia.”

She lifted a hand. “I’m not done. You admitted you loved me. From where I’m standing, your love is conditional.”

“The hell it is,” I challenged.

As if unfazed by my outrage, she continued, holding my angry gaze, “I’d rather live without love than have you place restrictions on it.”

She pushed past me, leaving me alone in the kitchen.

Chapter Fifteen

Sophia

I lay in bed exhausted, unable to calm my mind enough to fall asleep. The scalding shower I took after leaving Damon had done little to alleviate the tension in my body. My mind and emotions couldn’t uncoil themselves from all that transpired with Damon.

The want and desire were two constants whenever we were around each other. It was a visceral thing. This magnetic pull drew us together. At the same time, we were opposites who could repel wanting very different things.

How had we fallen in love? Was it even really love?

I knew what I felt. And it hurt to see that I likely wouldn’t get what my older siblings had with their partners.

Damon and I had an intense passion, but it couldn’t sustain a future together.

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