Page 49 of Theirs to Desire (Club M: Boxed Set)

FIONA

I watch Adrian walk out the door, and a piece of my heart leaves with him. The tears pour down my cheeks, and I can’t stop them from falling. “You warned me,” I whisper to Brody. “You knew this would happen, and I didn’t listen.”

He puts his arm around me and draws me to the bed. The pillows smell like Adrian—a mix of pine, leather, and smoke—and when I breathe in the scent, fresh tears fall. “Shh,” Brody comforts me. “Don’t cry, sweetheart. It’s going to be okay.”

I lean against his shoulder and close my eyes.

Over and over, I see Adrian’s face when Raymond pulled out his knife.

Why had I insisted on staying in Xavier’s office?

Brody had warned me just this morning, and I’d been too reckless, too caught up in my own powerful gladness that Raymond was finally being held accountable for his wrongdoings, that I didn’t hear him.

There had been a finality in the way Adrian had left. I know I’ve lost him.

I’ve lost everything.

I get back to Georgetown on Sunday at noon in the same fog of despair. “Give him time,” Brody says to me gently as he drops me off in my apartment. “He’ll come around.”

“Will he?”

He doesn’t answer right away. “I want to say yes,” he says finally. “But I’m not sure.”

“I’ve ruined everything.” Katya’s safe, and Raymond is almost certainly going to be locked up for many years, but even that doesn’t seem to matter. Adrian’s absence is a big, gaping wound.

“Shh.” He kisses my forehead. “Downing drew a knife. Xavier’s security team should have caught it. This isn’t your fault.”

“You asked me to leave,” I murmur, remembering Brody’s words. If Downing’s on his way, you shouldn’t be here. “I thought you were protecting me, but you weren’t. You were protecting Adrian.” I blink away the ever-present tears. “I was too stupid to listen.”

His blue eyes rest on me. “You are who you are, Fiona,” he says.

“You’re brave. You have a strong sense of right and wrong.

You could have walked away from this situation, but it never even crossed your mind.

” He laces his fingers in mine and presses a soft kiss on my lips.

“It’s what made me fall in love with you. ”

Yesterday, hearing him say those words to me would have sent me dancing around the room and opening bottles of champagne in wild celebration. Today, all I can see is the Adrian-sized hole in my heart.

“Give it time,” he says again.

He kisses me once more and leaves. The door shuts behind him, and then I’m alone.