AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I was sent, don’t worry. It wasn’t my idea.”
He gripped the door, surprised by the way his stomach looped and dropped.
“Portia,” she explained unnecessarily, moving past him in the lightest wave of vanilla and honey. His gut rolled with need. He hadn’t forgotten how good she always smelt—he thought of her every time he passed a field of flowers—but it still knocked him sideways. “She asked me if I knew where you were. I thought you might not want anyone to know.”
He closed his eyes. “I appreciate that. You could have just called.”
Her eyes showed hurt; he wanted to take the words back. “I was sent to make sure you were okay and you look fine to me. So maybe stop being a jackass and give your family a call. They love you and they’re worried about you. They don’t deserve to be put through the wringer because you’re being a big fat crybaby.”
He almost laughed at the unexpected assault. “I beg your pardon?”
“You heard me. I don’t care what’s going on in your private life, your family deserves better than this. Call your mother.” She hesitated, staring at him for a beat, then began to walk again. This time, away from him.
His hand snaked out, caught her wrist. She jerked to a stop. Not because of the force of his touch, but because of the surprise of it.
“Don’t.” She glared at him. “Don’t touch me.”
He hated that they were like this. He hated it. He wanted not only to touch her, but to feel her. To feel every piece of her. He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her senseless. He wanted to mold her body to his and press her to a wall, and pleasure her until she was incandescent.
“Georgia—,”
She shook her head. “Nothing’s changed,” she reminded him. “I’m only here for Portia.”
His whole world fell away. Georgia had loved him. Maybe she still did. Maybe she didn’t. He shouldn’t care. But the thought of losing her love, of losing her, made his whole body sting. All over.
Losing someone you loved to death was awful and almost impossible to recover from. But there was also no choice in it, which made it inevitable to, in some part at least, recover. He’d lost Bianca and Livvie and grief chewed through him, but day by day, step by step, he’d kept going with his life.
Georgia was here. So close he could smell her and touch her. She was here, flesh and blood, alive, and she’d loved him, once upon a time.
Why hadn’t he seen how precious that was?
Or had he, and just known that unless he could give himself to her fully, he had to let her go?
“Will you stay?” He said, the words graveled. “Just for a while?”
Her eyes widened in shock and her lips parted. Beautiful, kissable lips. “No,” she said, but softly, almost under her breath. Almost as if she was willing herself to believe the word. She turned away from him then. “I have to go home.”
His heart tightened. “Stay,” he said again, hating himself for pushing her, for asking this of her when he didn’t deserve it.
She pulled her hand free. “You have to let me go,” she murmured. “You don’t want me, and I don’t want this.”
He stared at her. Stared at her face, her eyes, her lips, stared at her as she turned and left. Stared at her as she slipped into her rental car, started the engine, and drove away. Stared at the space she’d occupied long after she’d gone, a sinking feeling overriding everything else in his gut.
And he swore then, into the brilliant sunshine of the day, he cursed and he wished that he’d never met Georgia. She was the beginning of his end. She was his everything, and he hated her for it.
Even when he didn’t hate her at all.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“JESUS, DANTE.” GEORGIA STOPPED, paler than a ghost. “You scared the bejeezus out of me.” Colour returned to her cheeks. Angry colour. “What are you doing here? I told you, don’t surprise me…”
“I know.” Standing outside her apartment building on a quiet street in a little hamlet of the Thames, he wore a suit, no sunglasses despite the brightness of the day, and his hair, which had been long at his collar in Como, was trimmed and neat.
“What do you want?” Her voice had a hostility to it that she couldn’t curb, but she was annoyed and she was tired. Tired of the way he’d taken over her thoughts and mind and heart and soul. Tired of feeling him inside of her, even when he was nowhere near her. Tired of wanting him and knowing he was forever out of her reach, that his heart belonged to someone who was out of his reach. It was all so exhausting.
“Actually, I wanted to ask if you’re free for dinner.”
He held up a paper bag with a label on it she recognized as belonging to an exclusive boutique.
