Page 246 of Legacy
She raises a brow, skeptical.
“They are… moments,” I admit. “Every time I got myself off thinking of you, I marked one.”
She blinks.
Slowly.
And then makes a face. “That’s… wow.”
I smirk. “Human?”
“Weirdly flattering. But also disgusting.” She squints. “You notched the bed foreverytime?”
I nod once.
She exhales through her nose, scrunching it adorably. Her eyes staring at the window like she’s re-evaluating all her life choices.
“There’s no way,” she says flatly. “You expect me to believe you were celibate for five years?”
I don’t flinch. “No. Because I wasn’t.”
Her eyes narrow. “So you brought them where? Here?!”
“No.” My voice is firm, immediate. “No one’s been here. I replaced everything, remember? The mattress, the furniture, even the damn plates. This place has only ever been ours.”
She studies me, jaw tight, but she nods.
I exhale heavily.
“If you have to know, to ease those damn thoughts—my one-night stands were in cars, hotels, bathrooms, clubs. Never brought anyone home. Never saw them again. Nothing important. No names, no love, no history.”
She looks away, her mouth twisting as she swallows hard.
“I get it,” she mutters. “You don’t have to rub it in that I moved on, that I tried, and you didn’t.”
“That’s not what I—”
“I know,” she cuts me off, voice quiet but laced with fire. “I know you’re jealous of the men I was with. I can see it. But I’m jealous too, Angelo.”
Her eyes shift to my chest as her fingers resume tracing the lines of my tattoos. “I’m fucking furious at every woman you touched after me.”
I go still.
She doesn’t stop.
“The thought of it,Godthat ate at me. For years. Even when I was lying close to someone else. Because no matter how much I tried to erase you from my body…”
She swallows, her jaw tight, like she’s debating whether to say it.
“…you were etched into my bones.”
I stare at her, gutted.
I hold her tighter, closer. As if keeping her pressed to me could erase all the ways I hurt her.
“No one could replace the memory of you over me,” she finishes, barely above a whisper.
And fuck me, I think my heart just gave out.
