His words landed like blows to my stomach, but I steeled myself. He was hurting, that much was obvious. His eyes lacked their usual menacing glint.
“I know what it’s like to feel lost and alone, Zane. I can help. Even if you don’t want to be with me, we can be friends.”
What was I saying? I didn’t want to be friends. I wanted to be more than that to him. But maybe he needed time to get there. To see that none of the other stuff mattered.
All that mattered was how we felt about each other. And he cared. I knew he did. I’d felt it in the way he’d kissed me. The way he’d needed me.
I waited, giving him time to digest my words. Slowly, he lifted his eyes to mine and my heart catapulted into my throat at the pain there.
“Zane, what is it? Tell me what’s wrong?”
“You,” he breathed. “It’s you, Celeste. This. Us. I never should have let it get this far. If I’d have known you were a virgin… fuck, I never would have touched you.”
“Y-you know? But ho— Harleigh.”
“Nix, actually. But it doesn’t matter because you should have told me.”
“I tried.” Tears clogged my throat.
“Yeah, but not hard enough. Now I’m the bad guy for taking your fucking cherry and making you think it meant something—”
“It did mean something,” I cried. “You keep talking about it like it was a mistake, but it wasn’t. I was there, remember. I wanted you just as much as you wanted me. You’re just too scared to admit it. You’re a coward, Zane Washington. Whatever way you—”
“Are you done?” His eyes darkened as he cut with me another withering look.
“I… Zane, please. We can talk about this. I drove all the way—”
“I didn’t ask you to be here. No one asked you to be here. This ends now.” His expression turned hostile. “I don’t want you here, Celeste. You need to stop turning up like some crazed stalker. It’s pathetic. You’re pathetic, and you need to stay away from me and my grandma.”
I sucked in a sharp breath at his parting words. He didn’t mean them. He couldn’t.
But Zane shouldered the door and climbed out, giving me one final scathing look.
And this time when he walked away, he didn’t take another piece of my heart with him, he left it broken into smithereens all over the ground.
Zane
I kickedthe dirt as I walked away from her. From the look of utter devastation on her face. But it was for the best.
Celeste Rowe was too good for me. Too good for a guy who had just sold his soul to the devil in order to make ends meet.
Leo D’Angelo owned me now. And in four weeks’ time, if I didn’t have his money with interest, he would demand blood. But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the wad of cash in my pocket. The money Grams needed to pay for her treatment.
I’d figure out the rest. Bust my ass at the mill or ask Bryson to be added to his roster. I could make it work.
I had to.
So although I felt like the world’s biggest asshole at the things I’d said to Celeste, I needed her to hate me.
I needed her to stay the fuck out of my business.
Out of my life.
I couldn’t have her anywhere near this arrangement with D’Angelo.
Nix had been right all along.
But as I climbed the ramp to the trailer, I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that she’d come for us again. That she was willing to risk the wrath and judgment of her parents if they ever found out, for me.