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But Daphne coming back to reality was more important than the angry, desperate, pounding desire I had to throw her over my shoulder.

It took a few moments, but Daphne’s breathing started to slow. She blinked a few times, her long eyelashes casting shadows over her high cheekbones. I could see the exact moment she broke down the wall in her mind, her fingers pressing harder into my chest.

“Luke?” she asked carefully, like she was afraid of the answer.

I couldn’t help it. Even if I could, I didn’t give a fuck. Not right now. I pulled her to me and crushed her into the hug I’d been restraining since the moment I saw her.

“I’m here, baby. I’m here,” I said against the top of her hair.

I could feel her knees buckle slightly and I held on even tighter. If I could crack my chest open and use my body heat to warm her chilled skin, I would.

A few more breaths, then Daphne’s hands carefully moved from where they were trapped between us to loop around my neck. I felt relief pour over me in a tidal wave.

I had her back.

I was holding on for dear life, holding her a little too tightly, but I was a man starved. My hands splayed across her back, only moving when her body expanded with a breath.

Minutes, hours, could have passed by the time Daphne spoke.

“I thought you were gone,” she whispered against the skin of my throat.

I stepped back, taking her arms in my hands again. I needed to see her eyes.

“I would never leave you.” It was a rushed promise, pushed from the depths of my soul with heavy conviction.

If it didn’t jump out of my throat like it was forcefully pulled from me, I might have taken a second to think about the implications of that sentence.

But I didn’t. Not until it was too late.

Daphne’s body went cold again, her limbs locking. She stepped back, right out of my reach.

Because with that promise out there, it was clear she couldn’t make the same one.

She’d left.

Daphne took another step away from me and a small, sarcastic chuckle fell from her lips as she gathered herself. She reached up, making sure her hair was still tucked behind both ears.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” she said softly, almost low enough that I couldn’t hear her.

Turning on her heel, she started quickly toward her bedroom, and I let her walk away.

She’d left.

For reasons she refused to share. But I knew her. And for all her traits, she wasn’t an actress.

Daphne might have been hiding whatever it was she felt for me behind hostility, but there was something there. And I was going to figure out what that was.

I was going to get answers to why she left. BecausemyDaphne couldn’t have faked that.

As I watched her flee from the room, I started planning to uncover the secrets behind her departure. Especially since it was becoming more and more clear that she hadn’t left because she didn’t care.

Chapter 19

Daphne

I slammed my door shut and sank against it, my heart beating like a hummingbird’s. I wasn’t sure I was fully in my body, my mind still somewhere wild with grief.

Relying on an old tactic to calm myself down, I started muttering facts under my breath of what I knew to be true.