Page 116 of Resurfaced Passion

God, that hurt her insides something fierce.

Paige shook her head, took a fortifying breath and looked at him. “It’s fine—it’s fine, slip of the tongue, I get it, it happens to us all.” She tried to smile it away and failed miserably. “I do it all the time at work.”

“Then why are you backing away from me like I got the plague?” He asked quietly, sounding like he was experiencing his own pain, his eyes pinning her.

There they stood, mere feet apart, only moments ago they were as close as a couple could be and now? It felt like it always had been with Reaper, that she didn’t really know him at all andGod, she was just contemplating moving in with him.

“I’m not, but I…It just took me by surprise. It’s okay, really.”

It wasn’t okay.

“Baby, I’m sorry. Don’t back away from me.Fuck. I can deal with anything but you backing away from me now. I fucked up; it won’t happen again.”

“Reaper, don’t,” as hurt as she was feeling, it was instinct to want to reassure him, to sooth the onesheloved, “mistakes happen, let’s forget it.”

She couldn’t forget it. She was replaying how he’d said the name on a torturous loop.

It was love and passion andneed.

He’d said that pet name so reverently, like he was making love to bliss itself.

She blinked back tears and wrung her fingers together, unsure if she should leave and give them some space for a few hours until she didn’t feel so stupid for letting it bother her so much.

She was the woman in Reaper’s life, he’d never given her a reason to think differently. In his own stalkerish way, he’d pursued her all this time, that had to mean something.

But does he love you like he loved her?A voice taunted.

Was she a poor substitute for a love he couldn’t get over?

Hells bells, she was going to drive herself crazy, but how could she fight a ghost?

How could Paige ever live up to what he’d had before?

This mysterious relationship he wouldn’t even talk to her about.

She had no idea how happy his marriage was, but if the ring on his finger was anything to go by, then he still felt like a married man and that was something she’d been avoiding.

Sighing again, she gave light to a statement she may live to regret once she’d spoken it. It could ruin things between her and Reaper altogether. “I can’t compete with the dead, Reaper.”

For as long as she lived, Paige would never forget the look that crossed Reaper’s face, he didn’t approach her—didn’t try to touch her, she would have fallen into his arms had he tried. But that look… it gutted her straight down to the bone because it was a man who had loved and lost and who still loved, deeply.

His voice was strained when he eventually spoke. Eyes like two sad coins, unwavering with hers. “I never said she was dead, Paige.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

“Love you more…” – Reaper

An hour ago

He watched her like any guy nuts in love with his woman would. His eyes didn’t leave her once, even when he was alerted to a text message from TN and he took himself away to read it.

Smoke:The old coot is on the move. My guy saw him throw a bag into his pickup and steam out of there pretty fast. You want someone following?

Fuck.Fuck. The dread that stole through Reaper almost choked him.

Fear. Panic. Anger.

He knew there shouldn’t be any ramifications coming back on him for what he’d done, but he didn’t fucking care about that.

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