Page 26 of Taurus

“No.” She shakes her head and pulls her hand away. “Why did you do that to me? How could…” She chokes out a sob. “How could you sleep with her?”

That’s the question that has been hanging between us for years, but they mean two very different things to each of us.

For her, how could I sleep with someone else after everything we’ve shared. How could I betray her like that?

For me…. How could she ever think that I would do that to her? Because I didn’t. I never would.

“You want to do this now, Park? Right now?” I ask sternly and she sits up straighter.

“I do. It’s time, isn’t it?”

I sigh heavily. “I never slept with Amber fucking Barrett. Never. I don’t know why she told you that we did. She was always a vindictive snake with a crush on me. She tried, I rebuffed, she got angry. That’s it.”

“Then why didn’t you fight me? Why didn’t you even try to stop me? You just let me go.” Her voice cracks on the final word and she swallows a deep breath.

“I did, but you were so blinded by your anger, and the inability to trust anyone prevented you from opening your fucking ears and hearing me, Parker.”

“How am I supposed to believe that?” she asks, and I can see by the look in her eye she really means that. She still doesn’t know how to trust me, and that hurts more than anything else.

“Because I fucking loved you, Parker.” I rise to my feet. “I was in love with you. I would have done anything for you. I wouldn’t have ever dreamt of hurting you, and I thought I proved that to you time and time again, but you were so quick to believe someone else.” She pushes to her feet, standing face-to-face with me as I continue. “You were so sure I’d betrayed you that you bailed without a second thought. You bailed on Summer’s Grove. You bailed on me and you bailed on Warren.”

Without hesitation, she slaps me across the cheek with tears streaming down her face.

“Don’t you dare bring him into this. Ever. He has nothing to do with this and you know it. That was low.” She stands up straight and her eyes are wide and glistening with tears and anger. The guilt and regret I feel for the low blow is immediate.

“Shit, Park, I’m sorry. That was too far.”

Her lip begins to tremble and she takes a step back away from me until she’s flush against the wall. “Have you celebrated your birthday since then?” she asks randomly.

“What?”

“I haven’t celebrated a single time since my last one here. I couldn’t. I didn’t even want to think about it.” She laughs a little at herself, like a private joke. “You know what’s funny? As hard as I tried to put that day out of my head, I never could. I’d ignore my birthday but I couldn’t stop remembering that it was yours too. I’d wonder if you were somewhere out there celebrating like it wasn’t the anniversary of the worst breakup of our lives.”

The fact Parker and I share a birthday was something we always felt meant we were somewhat destined to be in each other’s lives. How often do you meet someone, click with them more than anyone ever, and find out you have the exact same birthday? She admitted maybe we shouldn’t even try this after our very first kiss.

Tauruses are so bad together, but I don’t care… I want to do that again… and again.

Sometimes, she’d try to discuss the logistics of our star sign compatibility when we’d be lying in bed together or in the hammock under the same stars she was speaking of. I tried to understand, but I was too busy staring at her… touching her… falling in love with her.

“No, I haven’t celebrated since you left.”

She sniffs and drops her hands to her sides. “You didn’t sleep with her?”

I take a chance, acting on pure instinct, and step closer to her and bending my knees just a bit to meet her downcast gaze.

“No, I didn’t. I didn’t touch her. I didn’t flirt with her. I didn’t lead her on. I turned her down. I said no. I pushed her away. If you hear nothing else right now, I need you to hear that, okay?”

She turns her eyes up to mine and nods. “Okay.”

“Fuck, Park, I didn’t want to have this conversation while you’re drunk.”

I shift my stance to turn and walk away from her, to put some space between us, but she stops me with a tug to my tee shirt.

“Wait,” she says quietly, almost under her breath.

The knot forming in my throat is growing bigger by the second as is the electric current between our bodies.

I turn to face her and she’s blinking up at me under those tear-soaked lashes and it takes everything I have not to lean in and take what I want from her. What I can feel that we both want right now.

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