Page 152 of Meet Me In The Dark

“Mr. Blackwood is away on business,” she told me.

So I’d heard.

But it was her quick, subtle glance toward the end of the hallway that gave her away.

Liar.

“Thank you, Avery,” I replied stiffly, pretending toleave until she turned away.

When I was sure she could no longer see me, I moved toward Julian’s office door and threw it open without a single knock.

My breath caught in my chest when I saw him sitting at his desk with the phone pressed to his ear.

There was a roughness to him that wasn’t there before.

His gaze snapped up, eyes widening before settling into impenetrable coldness.

“I’ll call you back,” he clipped to whoever was on the line, hanging up without another word.

“You’re alive then,” I said, my voice shaking despite my efforts to remain steady.

“Celeste—”

“Don’t you dare,” I snapped. “Where the hell have you been?”

“Business.”

“That’s all you’ve got? Business?”

He leaned back in his chair, the picture of composure I wanted to smash to pieces. “That’s what it was.”

“That’s what it was?You vanish for two weeks. No calls, no explanations. Nothing. And when I finally find you, you give me one word?”

“There’s nothing else to say.”

“Yes, there is,” I said, stepping closer to his desk. “There’s everything to say. We’ve spent months, what? Pretending this is just about sex? Because I know better. I’ve seen better from you. But then you disappear without warning, and I’m just supposed to—”

“Let it go.” His voice was calm, but there was something tight around his mouth, something he wastrying to keep hidden.

“Why?”

“Because I said so.”

We stood there, frozen in a tense silence thick with unspoken accusations and unanswered questions. My eyes burned with tears I refused to let him see.

This wasn’t him, and something inside me screamed it louder and louder every second he looked at me with so much indifference.

He wasn’t the cold man he displayed in business. He wasn’t the charmer people often saw, either.

He was…

He was mine.

“I trusted you,” I whispered. “From the very first night. Blindfolded, vulnerable, in the dark… I trusted you even then. I let you in.” My voice broke no matter how hard I fought it. “I trusted you not to hurt me.”

“That was your first mistake, Celeste.”

I felt his words like a physical blow.