Page 48 of Locke 2

My smile fell. I didn’t expect that response. I gathered myself quickly. “I understand.”

“Do you?” He sounded sceptical.

“Yes, I do.”

“You look to be in enormous pain,” he said, sardonically. “Living a comfortable little life here—”

“It hurts,” I cut in. “It never stopped hurting.”

“And yet not a word from you.”

His acidic words didn’t cut me like I thought they would. I only felt warmth as I raptly listened to him. Being in his presence, no matter how cold it felt, made me happy in a way I’d not felt in so long.

“I didn’t think I mattered to you,” I admitted. “I thought you’d forgotten me.”

He tensed, growling, “I made it clear what you meant to me. I explicitly told you my intentions before I gave you that head start.”

“So, make it clear again.” I paused, wondering. “Did you miss me, Locke?”

“Do you wish to torment me with your questions?” he fired back, looking up at me now with steely eyes. “What good would come of knowing how I felt while you were gone?”

I didn’t respond and kept waiting for his answer. I let his words, filled with that quiet rage, sit heavily in the air around us. He sighed, shaking his head as the seconds ticked on.

“Yes,” he finally answered, defeatedly. “I miss you.”

Not missed.

Miss.

Like it was a feeling he was still enduring.

My heart rattled in my chest. “Locke…”

Say it back.

“No more.” He looked down at Dahlia, his voice gruff. “Sleep, Kali.”

The words escaped me before I could stop them. “Only if you kiss me goodnight.”

His gaze shot back to mine. “Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?”

“Pushing me.”

“You’re angry at me.”

“And you’resmiling.” His face looked lethal as he glared at me.

“Because from the very moment I met you, that’s all you seem to do to me. You push me until I’m all out of options.”

“Yet I still can’t draw you out.” His words were coated in defeat and…something else. “I’ve found you, and you’re still hiding from me.”

“I’m trying, Locke.”

“How so?”

“If I was hiding from you, I wouldn’t ask you to kiss me goodnight.”

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