Page 100 of Heart Sick Hate

I grab her jaw in my hand and force her to look up at me. “I’m getting really sick and tired of you saying that shit.”

“I know you.” Her shoulder shrugs up in the slightest movement that makes me tighten my grip. “I’m just stating facts. You only play along until you lose interest.”

“Echo, if I was in this for the fun then why am I still here? Because that ended a long time ago.”

Her eyebrows pinch. “Sorry I’m only a virgin once.”

“I’m not talking about your fucking virginity.” I tip her chin up farther and bring my mouth right over hers, kissing the puffy mound of her lip. “I’m talking about you, Echo Gwendolyn Slater, and what you do to me. I don’t feel pain. I don’t feel anything. It’s something I learnedwhen I found my mom with her throat split open in my living room.”

Her eyes sheen at my harsh comment.

“But do you know whatyoumake me do?”

She nods—barely. The smallest movement.

“You make me feeleverything. You hurt so bad I can barely stand it. You’re my worst nightmare and my best dream. I hate you. And I fucking love you. And everything in between.”

Echo’s eyes widen, and I realize what slipped out.

“You’re incapable of love.”

I can’t help but chuckle because she’s right. At least, I thought I was until her golden eyes burned a hole through my chest.

“Doesn’t matter what you want to call it. Love is a worthless word anyway. Especially given your love is already promised to someone else. I’m just trying to make you understand this isn’t fun. And it isn’t entertainment. Whatever you do is violent and rips me to pieces. But now that I’ve felt it, I can’t live without it. So I hope you’re happy.”

Echo’s breath hitches as pools form in her lashes.

“I’m not.” She blinks and a single tear rolls down her cheek.

A girl who doesn’t break in front of people, who pretends she can’t be harmed, splitting open and leaking out for me.

“I thought I could do this.” Her words are nearly a whisper, but it’s so quiet, and we’re so close, I hear every crack in her tone. “I thought if I was makingthe safe decision, eventually it would feel right. I thought if I could just get you out of my system, I’d get over it. You weren’t supposed to be so persistent and mess all that up.”

“From what I recall, you’re the one who came to me.” Not that it matters.

Whether I realized it or not, I was circling. Waiting.

“You could have just fucked me and walked away.” Her voice cracks at the end.

“You’re lying to yourself if you think that.” Releasing her jaw, I skate my hand along it, into her blonde hair and brush it back. “There is no walking away from you.”

“I’m a mess,” she whispers.

“I know.”

“I’ve stabbed someone.”

“I’ve done worse.”

Her eyes narrow and the littlest smirk ticks up in the corner of her mouth. “We’re terrible people.”

“Or we’re just not full of shit like everyone else.” I shrug.

“I can’t marry him.”

She spins the ring my brother gave her around her finger. The sight of it where her purity ring lived is wrong.

“I’m only going to ask you this one more time, Echo…” I lock our gazes, her golden eyes spearing through my chest. “What do you want?”

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