Page 118 of Manhattan Secret

I deflate. I’ve lost him without being given the chance to win him back.

My shower takes only minutes and I’m soon dressed in purple sleep shorts and an oversized white t-shirt. I sit on the end of the bed combing my hair, I coil into a bun on top of my head.

The door swinging open almost gives me a freaking heart attack.

Lachie dumps a warm paper sack in my lap.

“Eat,” he bosses in a deep rumble.

He’s come back and brought me food from the seven-eleven on the corner.

Oh, wow.

My heart swells, nearly busting my rib cage.

I discover my favorite slice of cheese pizza inside with salted fries and he’s holding the big cup of what I know will be a strawberry slush.

One sip, and I’m right.

“Thank you, Lachlan.”

“Just eat before you pass out again.”

I could have told him I didn’t pass out, I puked because the thought of him with anyone else tore me up inside. Instead, I take a small nibble of the pizza.

Lachie doesn’t sit, he parks over by the door, his back to the wall, both arms and ankles crossed. Staring at me.

“Are we done? Have I left it too late?”

“Were you not there, Delaney? You made sure we were done.”

“I know what I did. I’m trying to make it right; I just need a chance. If there’s no chance, if you’ve moved on, I need to hear it.”

“You saw me climb the stairs with two chicks…”

A tight fist squeezes around my heart and I swallow emotion.

The way the blank words come out of a mouth that only a while ago could charm the pants off me with the sweetness and bad boy words, now is devoid of anything I once knew.

The pain of that image will haunt me forever.

“Right. Okay.”

“Yeah, Delaney. We’re done. Did you expect to walk back into my life and have everything go back to normal?”

“Expect, no. I hoped for it.”

“When have you known me to do forgiveness?”

Cold as ice. His timbered voice pulses through me like a spear.

But his eyes speak a different story and it’s the look in those depths that make me not lose my freaking mind.

He feels something;I know it.I just have to find it again.

He had his hand down my pants only minutes ago.

That’s my lewd, crude, unashamed boy I know and love.

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