Page 44 of Marry Me…Maybe?
She snorted with disdain and turned to look at him, her heart thumping in her chest. ‘And that is…?’
He took a deep breath, fixed her with his dark gaze and took a careful step forward. ‘Fear, and an unhealthy proclivity for self-loathing.’
Hot anger flashed through her and she shot him a look of disgust. ‘I don’t hate myself.’
He didn’t say anything, just kept looking at her with an infuriatingly shrewd expression.
‘I don’t, Theo.’
He still didn’t say anything.
His knowing silence was the last straw.
‘Who do you think you are, coming in here and saying things like that to me?’ she spat. ‘You don’t know me. Sure, we’ve had sexand some fun over the last few weeks, but that doesn’t mean you’ve got into my head, Theo.’ She was shaking now, her whole body tense with rage.
‘I know you, Emily,’ he said calmly.
She lost it, marching forward and swiping a dismissive hand towards him. ‘You don’t!’
He grabbed both her hands and held on to them, trying to calm her.
‘Get off me!’ she shouted in his face, her breath rasping painfully in her throat.
He let her go, then shook his head, his brow furrowed.
His silence enraged her even more. ‘Get out of my house! I don’t want you here. You’re not welcome!’ she yelled.
He took her insults, resolutely refusing to rise to them.
He wasn’t giving her anything back – just shutting her out like he always did.
She wanted to hurt him – needed to see the same pain she was feeling reflected back at her in his eyes.
‘Why so quiet, Theo? Afraid to stand up to me? Just like you’re afraid to stand up to your own mother? You’d rather lie and sneak around behind her back than talk to her straight and tell her how you feel. Because you’re a coward!’
Her caustic words finally seemed to penetrate through his emotional defences and the expression in his eyes grew hard with anger. But to her frustration he still refused to say anything back to her, instead clenching his jaw, making a muscle tick in his cheek.
Desperation clawed at her. She needed a reaction from him. Any reaction. Just to prove she’d made some kind of impact on his consciousness. That perhaps he cared about her more than he let on.
Because she cared about him.
The realisation hit her like a punch to the chest, knocking the breath out of her lungs.
‘Say something, Theo,’ she begged, her voice now wobbly with the emotion she was frantically trying to hold back.
He opened his mouth, his dark gaze boring into hers, and for one precious second she thought he might speak. But then he shut his mouth again, his expression detached and unyielding. He gave her one last cold look before turning and walking away.
She listened to his footsteps thundering down the stairs, then the swish and slam of the front door as he left the house, and her heart sank deep into her gut.
He was gone.
He’d deserted her – just like all the other men in her life. Not that she hadn’t pushed him to it, but he clearly didn’t care about her enough to fight back.
Slumping onto her bed, she put her head in her hands and took some deep, controlling breaths to stop herself from hyperventilating, feeling more alone than she’d ever felt in her life.
She had no idea how she was going to get through tomorrow without his comforting strength by her side.
And the thought of having to deal with her father’s cold contempt on top of everything else made her gut sink with misery.
