Page 52 of Unrequited
Tomorrow should be a celebration, but instead, it feels like I’m being led to the executioner’s block. I stare at the dress as if it’s a pair of handcuffs.
Sigh. I’m being dramatic. He’s not…thatbad.
But he isn’t Seamus either.
I hear a soft sound at the window.
I freeze. One tap. Then another.
My stomach plummets. I see the flash of a hand.
My room is on the second floor. Who the hell…?
Whoever it is had to get past cameras, then scale the side of the damnhouse.
Heart pounding, I walk to the window. I open it just a crack. The smart thing would be to call my brothers, but something stops me.
“That’s my girl.”
My chest constricts, and my body heats. Anger flares, but it’s tangled with something else—something dangerous. Something like… hope.
Seamus?
“What are you doing here?” I hiss. “They’ll fucking kill you.”
“Language,” he whispers.
No. We can’t fall back into old rhythms. I can’t let him drag me back into his orbit.
And then—he’s there. I help tug him through my window and into my room.
Seamus. All six feet of hard, masculine beauty. Blue eyes even brighter than I remember. That messy hair, dimpled cheek. That jaw.
Those lips, god, those lips I’ve wanted on every inch of my body. The ink on his arms. The Irish lilt in his voice that still unravels me.
The room isn’t big enough for the two of us.
I slam the window shut behind him. Thank god, we have no cameras in the bedrooms.
“You can’t be here.”
“I am,” he says simply, but his smile is wrong. Distant. Guarded.
Is he angry? At me?
“Why are you here, Seamus?” I snap, tossing my head. “You left me.”
“Left you?” he growls, prowling closer. “Zoya. Jesus, baby. I was arrested.”
His voice is a hush, and I hear footsteps in the hall. I press my ear to the door—then silence.
We’re safe… for now.
My heart beats so fast I’m dizzy.
He was… arrested?
“I was in jail,” he says, and now that he’s closer to me, I can see the scabs on his neck and shoulders, the haunted look in his eyes. Russian prisons are notorious for their brutality. My stomach plummets.
