Page 34 of Trust in the Fallen

“What are you doing here?” I hiss. Jason is probably already looking for me, and if he even suspects I might be with them there’s no telling what he’ll do. It’s better for everyone involved if I just go back to my boring little life with my arranged marriage and never see them again. No harm no foul.

Fingers wrap around my chin and tug my face up until warm breath whispers across my cheeks. The small amount of light that pours in around the doorframe affords me the outline of Elias’s face. His sharp jaw. The line of his nose. The curve of his lips. And it takes everything in me not to lean forward. Their scents are overwhelming, making it hard to remember all the reasons this is a bad idea.

How can something that feels so right, be so wrong?

“Wanna tell us why you ran from us, pretty girl?”

I squeeze my eyes closed and try desperately to steady my breathing. There are too many reasons, but none of them they would understand. How could they?

“This is the part where she tells us she didn’t have a choice, isn’t it angel?” Wyatt’s voice is playful, but there’s an edge to it. He’s hurt that I left without a word, but can’t he see I am, too? Don’t they realize walking out that door was the hardest freaking thing I’ve ever done?

I open my mouth to respond, but Elias gets in first. “But you’re wrong, Leighton. You have a choice. And you made the wrong one.”

I let out a shaky breath, tears brimming at the corners of my eyes. But I can’t let them fall. If I smudge my makeup, I’ll be in a whole new load of trouble. Wouldn’t want to embarrass the governor’s son at his own event. “You don’t understand,” I whisper, not trusting my voice to remain even.

“What don’t we understand? Tell us why you think you don’t have a choice,” Elias presses. If only it were that simple.

“Because I don’t.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, angel.”

I sigh and squeeze my eyes tighter. It’s too much being in a tight space with them. It was too much sitting across the table from them, but right now it’s impossible to breathe. “I have to go. If Jason realizes I’m gone for too long…” I trail off. I can’t tell them what he’ll do, can I?

“Who gives a fuck about that asshole?” Elias growls. “He cheated on you. Repeatedly if the club’s records are accurate. And I’m sure he has no plans on stopping, men like him never do.”

“And hehurtyou, Leighton. He put his hands on you,” Wyatt adds and it takes everything in me not to laugh. They don’t know the half of it. While they’ve never been anything but gentle with me, there’s an air of danger that surrounds them. Maybe it’s their time in the SEALs, or maybe it’s more. And while I wish I could stick around to find out, I can’t. Whatever reason God had for putting them in my path was just some kind of sick joke.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Like hell it doesn’t matter, Leighton.” Elias’s grip on my chin tightens, and his lips whisper over mine, the slightest of brushes I would almost think I imagined, but his kiss is burned into my skin, a brand I would recognize anywhere.

“I have to go.”

“We could get you out of here. We could get you as far away from that asshole and your insufferable mother as physics will allow. You just have to say yes,” Wyatt pleads.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to say yes, tobegthem to take me away.

But then my phone vibrates in my purse, and reality comes crashing down on me.

I allow myself one more second of being surrounded by them before slipping from their grasp and out of the tiny cleaning closet they pulled me into.

I don’t bother stopping to check my phone. The message would only make the temptation to go back to them that much stronger, and I’m barely holding on as it is.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-FOUR

WYATT

“Fuck!” I slam my hand into the wall beside me. The plaster protests loudly until cracks form around my hand.

She left again.

Why the fuck does she keep leaving us?

Can’t she see we can give hereverything?

“She’s not ready yet,” Elias states, his tone cool and even. How the fuck is he so calm? I’m ready to climb out of my fucking skin.

“What if she’s never ready?”

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