Page 184 of Unsuitable

Mirroring him, I wrap my arms over my chest. “How did you know that Damien was here that day?” I ask him the question that’s been plaguing me for a while now.

“I didn’t. It was just lucky timing.”

“So, why were you here?”

“To see you.”

“Why?”

He sighs. “Because being without you just didn’t feel like an option.”

My heart constricts at his words. But something tells me there’s a but in those words.

“And now?” I ask quietly.

He blows out a breath, pushing his hands into his pockets, his eyes making friends with the carpet. “And, now…it still doesn’t feel like an option, but…”

And there it is.

I tighten my arms around my suddenly cold chest. “But?”

He lifts his eyes to mine, and what I see in them makes my heart break.

“I’m leaving, Daisy. Once the thing is sorted with the police, I’m leaving.”

He’s leaving.

“Oh.” I step back, needing the distance, though wanting to be closer to him now more than ever.

He exhales roughly. Freeing his arm, he shoves a hand through his hair. “You’re so close to getting Jesse back, and being with me, it would hinder that. I might be close to getting off with self-defense, but in the eyes of the law, I killed a man. I have killed men. In cold blood. There’s no coming back from that, Daisy.”

“I’ve killed someone, too.”

Fierce black eyes meet with mine. “You need to forget that ever happened.”

“You want me to forget when you won’t allow yourself to forget?”

“It’s different.”

“How?”

“Because I fucking deserve to remember everything. You don’t.”

“Bullshit!” I snap. “This is bullshit! You’re leaving me here, and I’m just supposed to accept that? Fuck you, Kas.”

“Daisy…” He takes a step toward me. “You know I’m right. If I stay here, you won’t get Jesse back. They’ll use me as a reason to keep him from you—”

“No, they won’t. Anne said—”

“Daisy,” he reasons. Taking my face in his hands, he forces my eyes up to his. Tears are filling them. “I don’t want to be—I can’t be the reason you don’t get Jesse back. You’d resent me. End up hating me. I couldn’t bear it if that happened.”

He’s right. I know he’s right. Just the selfish part of me doesn’t want to let him go.

The selfish part of me wants it all.

Wants him and Jesse.

But I know, in the real world, the two things just don’t go together.