Page 157 of Meet Me In The Dark

Hell, I wanted this. I lit the damn match, and it burns.

She’s not just angry. She’s hurt.

“We were sleeping together.” I stick to the facts even when it’s going to kill me. We both know it was so much more than that. “And I left without a word.”

“No, we didn’tsleepanywhere. You fucked me and then you left.”

With a slow breath, I stand and walk to the door. Her gaze follows me the whole way.

“What?” she bites. “Ashamed someone might hear that you fucked me?”

God, she gets fiery when she’s pissed.

“Believe me, sweetheart”—I look her dead in the eye—“I’d fuck you in front of an audience if you’d let me.”

“That’s disgusting.”

“You’re blushing.”

“I’m furious, Julian.”

“Even better. You’re sexy when you’re angry.”

“Go to hell.”

“Already there.”

I should apologize, give her space, be a functioning goddamn adult, but everything about her makes me forget how to behave.

My jaw clenches as I drag a hand through my hair. “I was away on business.”

“And your fingers broke? You couldn’t type or pickup the phone? Or are you only able to do that when I put panties in your pocket?”

“It wasn’t that simple.”

“It never is with you.”

“I needed space.”

“Right,” she scoffs, turning from me like she’s about to leave. “Because I’m the irrational one who wanted too much after all those nights of meaningless sex.”

I move fast, catching her wrist before she gets far. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Act like it didn’t mean something.”

She jerks her hand back. “I didn’t say it didn’t mean something. I said you made it meaningless.”

“I told you,” I say quietly, “I had business.”

Sickening guilt claws its way up my throat.

I’m a broken man, and a broken man doesn’t stand a fucking chance of keeping his guard up around someone like her. She doesn’t just find the cracks, she steps through them like they’re doorways.

It’s fucking pathetic. When she was hiding from me, I tore down every wall to reach her. Now that I’m the one hiding, I can’t even pick up the hammer.

“Why do all of that just to cause a fight?” She looks exhausted now too.