Julia
His voice was so low, yet it reverberated through me as if a powerful demand. I couldn’t help but hesitate at the resignation. The sadness.
The hurt.
Based on what I knew to be true — a true crime podcaster confronting me about my ex-husband, then her brother, a professional baseball player who could sleep with any woman he wanted, agreeing to a one-week fling with me, a forty-year-old woman — I had no reason to believe him.
To trust him.
But Naomi’s relentless voice echoed in my head, begging me to listen to him. To consider the idea that maybe our paths crossed because of a bigger reason. That we were, as she put it, “two lost souls who desperately needed to be found”.
And that was exactly how I felt before I met Lachlan. Like I was lost, bobbing on an ocean under a starless night, looking for a compass to steer me home. Nothing in my life had ever made sense.
Until him.
I felt it the first time his skin brushed mine. This pull toward him.
And it was this pull that prevented me from walking away from him right now, a force bigger than me keeping me frozen in place.
I looked over my shoulder. “Wrong?”
He slowly nodded, taking several deliberate steps toward me. I fully faced him, pulse quickening at the intensity and determination in his gaze.
“Yes, Belle…Julia.” His chest heaved, jaw tense. “You’re wrong. I didn’t accept your proposition to get information out of you. Hell, I didn’t even know who you were until I learned Claire had a goddamn true crime podcast, something I had no idea about until a few hours ago.”
“Then why—”
“I accepted your proposition because, from the moment I met you, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. Because you’re a beautiful woman who has this infuriating, yet charming ability to make me laugh. Something I haven’t done much of in quite a few years, I’m afraid.”
He closed the final few inches separating us, only leaving a sliver of space. I tried to ignore the electricity sizzling in the air, remind myself it wasn’t real. That it was all a lie.
But I couldn’t ignore the way he looked at me with so much anguish, as if he’d just learned an awful truth.
Maybe he had.
“And because I knew I’d regret it every day if I didn’t do everything I could to spend as much time with you as you were willing to give me. Make no mistake. You’re the absolute last thing I need in my life right now. Even more so now that I know who you are and everything that goddamn bastard…” He trailed off, voice catching.
Just a few days ago, this man was a mystery to me, rarely showing a hint of emotion.
Now he practically broke down at the knowledge of who I was and what Nick had put me through. I didn’t know how to respond, what to think.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of crap in my life,” he continued, voice heavy with heartache. His nostrils flared. Muscles strained. Veins in his neck throbbed.
Every inch of him radiated pain and sorrow to the point that I physically felt his grief. And it wasn’t over losing his sister. It was because of what I’d silently endured for years, too petrified of what would happen to Imogene to voice my suspicions to anyone. A prisoner in a life Nick made for me.
In a way, I still was.
“But what I learned today…” He pulled his lip between his teeth. Then he cupped my face in his strong hands.
I inhaled a sharp breath at the initial contact, especially considering mere minutes ago, I wanted to get as far away from him as possible. But I couldn’t resist him, craving his touch. His peace. His comfort. His understanding.
I melted into him, heart aching at the emotion emanating from his fingertips as he held me the way I’d always dreamed about being held.
There was no hint of deception. Of possessiveness. Of manipulation.
It was real. Pure. Honest.
“I’ve never wanted to hurt someone as badly as I did. As I still do.” His eyes skated over my face, as if he were seeing me for the first time.