Page 114 of Secrets & Curses of Fate

She was probing for answers without being obvious. She was trying to seduce answers from me. Gods, that made me proud. I watched her look over me like she missed me. I swallowed hard because I knew how hard it was for her to have me leave for 300 years. She thought I didn’t remember her, or us, or how fucking beautiful we were together.

“I don’t know,” I lied.?

My answer made a look of hurt flash in her pretty eyes. She looked away from me, then stood up and slipped her clothes back on.?

“What’s wrong?” I already knew what was wrong. Me. I was breaking her heart.?

“Why are you not being truthful with me?” Her gaze finally found mine, and I saw the tears in her eyes.?

“I’m not lying to you.” I fucking lied through my teeth and hated myself for it.

“Do you not trust me?” She frowned when I didn’t answer her. “Do you think of me like I think of you?”?

She was using my own damn words against me and thought I wouldn’t remember.Please, don’t do this, Storm. Della frowned and stared at her hand, fiddling with something. I stood up and slipped on my clothes.?

I stilled when I saw what it was. My ring. She was still wearing it, and something about knowing that made my chest tighten. I watched her face go through so many emotions before she looked at the ground.

“That was your whole plan when you lured me out to play with you. You thought you’d fuck answers out of me?” I was irritated that she was suspicious of me. She was too damn observant for her own good. Della looked up at me, and the hurt in her eyes would stay with me forever.

“So, you don’t trust me,” she whispered.

I just stared at her, wishing she would drop it.

“Answer me!” Tears were falling down her pretty face.

“I have nothing to say,” was all I could come up with.

“If you do not want to tell me the truth right now, then I will leave, and I will not come back,” she threatened.

“You’re being irrational,” I said angrily. “Drop it.”

“Last chance.” She swiped the tears from her cheeks and swallowed hard as her anger turned into confusion. “Why won’t you tell me? You love me, so please, stop lying to me. I won’t be angry with you.”

This questioning needed to stop.

“I don’t fucking love you.” I bit out and the moment the words left my mouth, I wished I could pull them back to me. Dellastumbled back as if I had struck her with my hand. Gods, her devastation slammed into the mating bond and sucked all the anger from me. When I stepped toward her, she stepped away. I had broken her heart.

“Storm…” I pleaded.

“Fine, then I will stop wasting my time coming here.” She tried to sound angry, but it came out broken-hearted.

“Please, I didn’t mean to say that.”

When she looked at me, I knew I had fucked up big time. She had loved me for hundreds of years, and I just took the one thing she held onto—the fact that we loved each other.

“Well, you did say it. And it must have come from somewhere.”

“Just stay with me, and we can talk.” I asked, reaching out to her. My mating bond was desperate for me to fix the injury I had caused her.

“You mean you will just keep telling me lies and think I am too stupid to know?” I closed my eyes tightly and tried to control my emotions. When I opened them, Della looked like she was going to bolt. The longer I stood here silently, the more I could see the hope fade from her eyes.

She looked away from me, turning to wipe her eyes. I could hear the soft sniffles she was trying to keep in, but her shoulders shook silently with her silent sobs.

“I was still all in,” she whispered without looking at me.?

Tears immediately stung the back of my eyes as her words hit me exactly like she intended them to. I thought she would keep pushing it, but she summoned her star mist and left without another word, making me feel like complete shit.?I ran my hands down my face. I knew I should stay away, but the heavens and hell knew I couldn’t.

Chapter 29

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