Page 59 of Between Passion and Revenge: Part Two

Her voice climbs with every word until it slices through the space between us.

She rushes toward me, poking me in the chest.

“Don’t stand here and talk about protecting me when you threw me away like trash.No, like a goddamn used condom.”

Fire burns in her eyes now. The brief flicker of surrender I saw in her gaze? It’s completely gone now. She pokes harder, right into my heart.

“Don’t talk to me about protection when I had to deal with the pain and heartache and responsibility you left behind alone. When I buried my father alone. When I built this entire empire—alone.”

Her poke turns into a fist, and she slams the side of it into my sternum.

“So, no. You don’t get to say you want to protect me now. You can go back to whatever rock you’ve been under. I don’t need you to save me from Keystone oranythingelse.”

Her voice cracks. Just a little.

But her eyes? Steel.

“I’ll figure out a way without you. As I’ve always done.”

With every word she spits at me, every accusation and every hard truth, parts of myself start to fracture. The reasoning I convinced myself of in the sudden grief of my parents’ loss fails to hold up to the evidence of her devastation. The realities I’d fashioned in my imagination all dissipate like vapor.

Every time I’ve seen her since coming back to Chicago, the feeling I’ve resisted naming becomes more undeniable.

So, standing here in her foyer with her cum on my fingers and her scent in my nose, it hits me like a bullet to the brain: I am still completely, irrevocably, in love with Shae Olivya Rivers, and I broke her.

My actions changed her.

“You done?” I murmur, moving into her space. I don’t miss the hitch of her breath when my shirt scrapes against her chest.

“Done? We’vebeendone, Storm,” she whispers, her eyes slipping low.

I quirk an eyebrow, even though I feel shaken to the core.

“Are we? Because here’s what I see.”

Pulling her close to me, I band one hand around her back, running my fingers into the long strands she’s grown since we’ve been apart. At the roots, her naturally curly hair kinks against my fingertips, and it’s a reminder that what was, still is—the core of Shae is still completely her.

“I see you’re angry at me. I hear you’re hurt. And I understand it. You deserve your hurt. I know I caused it. At the same time…” I bring my cheek to the top of her head, breathing in her scent. I feel wild, out of control.

I thought I was obsessed with Shae before, but this?

I don’t even know whatthisis—this dangerous, all-encompassing emotion.

“I’ll do the work to earn us back. To fix what I broke. Because you might not believe it now, Shae, but you’re it for me. I know it’s been a long time, baby. It’s felt like forever for me, and I’ve dreaded every single day that we’ve been apart. But I know that we’re written in the stars. I know we’re supposed to be together. So, I won’t let up until you forgive me.”

Shae’s tiny frame begins to shake at my declaration, and I hold her tighter, unsure what I’ll be met with when I see her face.

She pulls back, but she doesn’t look me in the eye. Instead, she keeps her head bowed, talking to my shirt.

“I believed in us once,” she whispers. “And it damn near killed me.”

I don’t know what the hell to say to that because what is there to say? Words only go so far, and I’ll have to prove my intentions through my actions.

And I intend on saving her from Lakeland…and from herself.

“Why didn’t you answer, Storm? Why didn’t you…why didn’t you care?” Profound hurt laces her tone, and when she finally,finallylooks up at me, Shae is completely maskless.

And it’s like…I can barely stand to look at her in so much pain.