Page 97 of The Villain

I let my finger trace along the line. For some reason, this drawing meant more to me than the one she’d just done. Maybe because this one was of the man who saved her. The man who cared for her.The man she wanted.

This one came before she realized I was the first man to break her heart.

“You should go.” I pushed the paper back to her and looked away.

“Go where?” She surprised me by asking.

My mouth opened and shut before I worked out the words, “The guest cabin.”I assumed that was where Rob had taken her.

“As opposed to this one…which is yours?”

I breathed deep. Of course, she’d realized—or been told. “Yeah.”

“But you brought me here before.”

“I—yes.” It would only make it hurt worse to romanticize my reasons. “It was easier—better for you.”

“Like it was better for you to lie to me?”

Another bullet—a thousand bullets—would be less painful than hearing the devastation in her voice.

“I thought it would be,” I answered with humble honesty. “After what you went through, knowing who I was…am…it wouldn’t have helped anything, only hurt.”

“So you wanted to protect me…” She paused and tipped forward. “Or were you trying to punish yourself?”

“Athena,”I began too forcefully, wincing when my wound reminded me there was nothing I could do forcefully right now.

Her hand splayed across the center of my chest, heat spreading from the firm contact as she moved her touch lower to the edge of my ribs. “Was I one more way for you to let your past eat you alive?”

Her hand was over my liver, connecting her question back to the time when she’d deemed me a modern Prometheus.

“Why do you want to keep me from you?”

I tipped my head back and sighed. “Because you deserve better,” I said, sadness eating my tone. “Because if I don’t keep you from me, I’m afraid I’ll pull you to me and never let you go. And that’s not right…not okay.”

“Isn’t it?”

Heat burned through my veins. Temptation. Desire. Possession. Her words weakened me beyond anything I’d ever felt before, my current gunshot wound included.

“You know it’s not,” I said brokenly.

“I don’t, actually.”She met my gaze, hurt and hope shining bright. And then she pulled back and stood. “You should rest.”

“Wait.” I reached for her, but she wasn’t close enough. “I have to tell you…”

She came over then, standing above me like the goddess who’d determine my fate. My breath hitched when she bent forward, time stopping as she came lower—closer to my face. Closer to…I groaned when the warmth of her lips pressed to my forehead, the touch so fucking tender it destroyed me.

“I don’t want the truth, Darius,” she murmured, thewarmth of her breath caressing my skin. “Not without your trust.”

I didn’t move—I didn’t say a single word as she straightened and walked out of the room. Out of my cabin.

She didn’t want my explanation out of guilt; she wanted me to trust her with the last of my secrets. And if it were just my secrets, I could—would trust her easily. But I was afraid it was more than that now. I was afraid that to give her the truth, I’d also have to hand her my heart.

Chapter Nineteen

Athena

“Here.”

---