Page 55 of Camilla & Dallas
The world felt like it was falling away beneath Camilla’s feet. A wave of dizziness swept around her like a tornado. She wasn’t in the eye of the storm. She was every last piece of debris and shattered branch that Cheyenne’s windstorm announcement flung haphazardly around.
She didn’t even look like she cared.
There wasn’t a smidge of worry in her eyes, and that was the first thing that Camilla noticed.
The second was the look of utter guilt that she read on Dallas’s face.
Cheyenne was right.
Camilla opened her mouth, then closed it. No words were willing to come to her mind. How could they when her heart was in shambles? Dallas was planning on leaving, and he hadn’t even told her. “When?” she finally rasped.
“Camilla—” Dallas stepped forward.
“When?” she demanded harder this time. “When are you going to leave?”
He was glowering at Cheyenne. His dark gaze would have killed a lesser person. Camilla could feel the heat of it from where she stood. But the second he turned his attention to her, remorse and pain filled his eyes and she knew. Sheknewthat he wasn’t going to be sticking around, just like he hadn’t the last time.
“Can we talk about this privately?”
“Absolutely not,” Cheyenne snapped.
Another glare in her direction.
“Camilla,” Dallas pleaded. “It’s more complicated than that.”
“Is it? Because I seem to recall that we made a promise to each other?—”
“Camilla,” Dallas bit out. His eyes flashed with a warning—the only indication that he wasn’t willing to talk this over in front of his sister. And could she blame him? Still, she didn’t think she’d be capable of walking anywhere at this point. She couldn’t even feel her legs.
“Tell me this much. How long have you known?”
23
Dallas
Dallas stared helplessly at the love of his life—the woman who held his heart in the palm of her hand. She’d always owned that piece of him. From the very first second they’d met, he belonged to her.
His eyes darted from Cheyenne to Camilla and back. Cheyenne had planned this. She’d heard him on the phone, and she’d inserted herself into the conversation he’d needed to have with Camilla. While she was very much the one who had lit the match to this beautifully disastrous destruction that was currently his life, he was the one who had built the bomb.
“Cheyenne,” he said with gritted teeth, “please leave.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t drive. We were going to have a fashion show.”
He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ll get someone to take you home. You can borrow Camilla’s car. Or I can call you a cab.”
She snorted. “And miss this? Fat chance. Why can’t you admit that you messed up? Again. You keep doing this and Camilla keeps forgiving you. At some point you’re going to have to accept that you’re not good enough for her. You never will be.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. Right about now, he wanted so badly to tell Camilla what Cheyenne had said about Camilla belonging to her in a way. He didn’t have any proof, but if she was so obsessive about his dating her best friend, then how did she react to other men in Camilla’s life? Had she meddled in Camilla’s other relationships?
His twin seemed to understand his train of thinking. At least that was how it appeared based on the sudden frown that replaced her expression of exaltation. Was that worry that he read in her expression?
Taking a step forward, he lowered his voice. “You can either make yourself scarce or I will remove you myself.”
“Dallas!” Camilla chided. “You’re not?—”
“This has nothing to do with her, Camilla, and you know it.” His tone was sharper than he’d intended it to be, and he winced. He’d never raised his voice to anyone. The careful control he’d worked so hard to develop was unraveling before his eyes.
Both women stared at him. His sister looked almost triumphant, which tore into him in a very different way than the wary expression Camilla sent his way.
