Page 65 of Stealing His Christmas Present

Chapter 24

HAVING MY WHOLE FAMILYat the table for our traditional Christmas dinner was even more awesome because Pablo was with me.

Somehow, everything seemed more complete. He was like the piece I’d been missing for a long time, and now that I’d found it, everything was right where it should be.

Once the dinner was over, the music started and everyone got to their feet.

I offered Pablo my hand as he got up.

“What’s happening?” he asked.

“Our traditional dance,” I said. “This is the first time I don’t have to dance with my brother.”

He let me pull him to the middle of the room, and I wrapped my arms around his neck as he snaked his arms around my waist.

I gazed into his eyes. Being in his arms felt so damn good, and I wanted him to never let me go.

But Pablo’s eyes were swirling with too many emotions to keep track of, and I didn’t like some of them. The darkness was lurking in there again, and I didn’t know why.

“Claudia...” He pulled away from me. “Thank you for everything. This was... It was the best Christmas ever. But I need to go now.”

“Oh. When will you come back?”

He probably had some business to take care of. His gang members were probably wondering where the hell he was, or maybe they needed him to do something.

“I won’t,” he said, his face serious.

I frowned. “I don’t understand. You don’t need to come back here to my home if you don’t want to. We can meet somewhere else.”

He shook his head.

“Why? What’s happening? Do you need to do something, like, business? Or with your revenge plan? I thought that was over.” Tears stung the corners of my eyes, but I pushed them back, unwilling to let them fall over something that was probably just a misunderstanding.

“I am done with that, but you and I... We can’t be together.”

“Why not?” I choked out.

We were having such a wonderful time together. Why was he trying to ruin it all?

If he didn’t like me, he wouldn’t have stayed with me.

“You blame yourself for everything that happened after you met me. You should be happy, Claudia. The only reason you’re with me now is because you’re punishing yourself and you think you can’t do better. But you can. Trust me.”

“What are you talking about? That’s not true.”

“Come on. Would you really fall for a guy like me? After what I did to you? You like me because you’ve never given anyone else a chance. If you had, you would’ve seen I—”

“Maybe I haven’t met anyone else because you’re the one for me, and I’ve always known it.”

He barked out a laugh. “Meant to be? No, Claudia. There’s no such thing as destiny or fate. You and I are not meant to be together. This was fun. We were fun. But it’s over now. You need to move on.”

I stared at him in shock. How the hell was this happening?

I couldn’t have imagined it all, could I? Had he just been pretending because he thought my family would kill him otherwise?

Had he been pretending so he could use me to entertain himself? Had he just wanted a somewhat normal Christmas experience, and now that he’d gotten it, he was done with me?

“Goodbye, Claudia,” he said, and strode for the door.

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