Page 105 of Dark Soul

“Right now you’re not giving me any reason to go anywhere with you, least of all to move in with you,” she said, irritated by his pessimism.

“There’s nothing I can offer you, Alexia,” Dark said, his voice softer than she’d ever heard it before. He sounded almost ashamed. Then his voice hardened. “Thorne should have known better than to involve you any deeper into this.”

Okay, now he was really pissing her off. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

“I’m not going to let you do this to us, Dark. And you shouldn’t blame Thorne. He gave me a choice as to whether or not I wanted to hear the story. And you know why I said yes?”

Dark looked up at her. The light played in his penetrating blue eyes.

“I said yes because I love you.”

“You… love me…” He seemed to sway for a moment. She felt better when he leaned his large frame against a metallic desk, setting the glass down carefully on the surface.

“I love you, Dark. And I know there’s a lot we don’t know about each other, and maybe trust won’t come easy to either of us, but—“

“I trust you,” he interrupted.

The elevator dinged again, and what seemed like a herd of elephants headed in their direction. Griffin and Slate appeared first, walking side by side—which was good. Dark hoped they were closer to solving some of their issues. Rogue followed, his face stuck in his phone screen as he typed away furiously with his thumbs. Then Ash.

“Why the hell are you sitting here in the dark?” Rogue asked. “Oh, hi Alexia.”

“Hi Alexia,” the rest of the men said at the same time.

None of them seemed in the least surprised to see her there.

“You guys were in on this with Thorne?” Dark asked, his voice rough and dangerous.

33

* * *

Dark

“Dark. Hey. We were talking, remember?” Alexia asked, looking somewhere between amused and hurt.

Amused, he could cope with. But he couldn’t bear to see her hurt.

Hell, that was why he’d let her go in the first place, even though it almost killed him to do so. Because he couldn’t offer her anything, and she deserved … she deserved the world.

But his mind kept going back in circles.

“You said you love me.”

“I know. I do,” she said, her voice strangely patient now. She took a step forward, so they were almost touching, and reached out to grasp his hand. Hers was small and cold, and he gripped it unconsciously, looking to warm her skin.

“You can’t love me,” he said.

“I love you, Dark,” she repeated once again, as if realizing how much he needed to hear it. “And the only way I’m leaving is if you tell me you don’t love me back.”

He should.

He should tell her he didn’t love her and set her free.

The lie was a small enough price to pay for Alexia’s future happiness.

He should do it even if it destroyed him.

Her expression turned impatiently. “And I don’t mean you should lie to me, you fool,” she said.