Page 71 of Heartstruck at Dawn
“William, please,” I begged with my eyes closed. A betraying tear rolled down my face.
“Look at me.”
I opened my eyes and peered into his hypnotizing blue eyes. “How can you denythis?” He waved a limp hand back and forth between us. “You need to tell me how you do it because I can’t.” He brushed his lower lip with his thumb. “Remember this?” I nodded. It was our sign.
“Now touch your lips or tell me you don’t feel a thing, and I’ll walk away. Right now.”
He knew I’d always felt something for him. Since the day I met him, something inside me clicked—like a bell that couldn’t stop ringing. And the only way to make it stop was having him near me. Listening to his voice. Looking at his face. Feeling his touch on my skin. Kissing me. But as my feelings for him grew, so did my doubt, my uncertainty, and my suspicion.
It’s as if I couldn’t believe I’d found someone so perfect for me. Then Nathan came along and gave me everything to ease away the bad feelings that clouded my mind. Feelings I shouldn’t have felt but did because I was proud and stubborn, just as William.
“I’m sorry.”
“Just say it, then.” He insisted. His hands went back to holding my face.
“I can’t. I thought you were with Erin, and Nathan came along, and—”
William spat words in Swedish under his breath. What did he want me to say! If I told him that I felt nothing, I would probably collapse on the spot, and I couldn’t admit that my heart needed to be restarted every time I saw him either.
A piece of my heart belonged to Nathan now, too. I didn’t want to end things with him. I’d mourned William already, and he was now rising from the dead, pulling a Notting Hill on me.
“I’ll back off whenever you’re willing to tell me that you feel nothing.” He turned around and opened the door to leave.
“William!” I cried. He looked over his shoulder, still holding the doorknob. “Can’t we at least—try—to be friends?”
He snorted. “Perhaps in another life, when you don’t look like—that, and I don’t feel this way.” He turned around again but stood still, placing his forehead against the door.
“William.”
“I laid myself bare for you. More than I ever—” He cut himself off sharply and said in barely a whisper, “Never.” He stepped out and shut the door behind him.
How could I disagree with him? Friends?
In another life—a thousand years from now.
And even so … no. Never.
Nathan:Stepping out of the office. Are you home?
Me:Yes. See you here?
Nathan:I’ll be there in 15 minutes.
Thecollywobblesinvaded my stomach, just thinking of Nathan stepping onto the ninth floor and watching William moving in right beside me.
I paced back and forth from the living room to the foyer and back, waiting for Nathan to arrive. I needed to feel his arms around me, and that way, I’d know everything was going to be okay.
Finally, he knocked.
“What the bloody hell is going on?” Nathan asked as soon as I opened the door. He was staring toward apartment 9B, watching everyone move stuff in. William talked to one of the movers at the far end of the hall.
“Um, why don’t you come in?”
“William’s moving in next door?”
“He is. Apparently, he’s owned that apartment for a while. And now that Eric’s moving in with Tobias, well, he kinda needed to move out,” I explained. I wasn’t sure if that version was authentic. “At least that’s what I understood from what Alice told me.”
“Who’s Alice? His new girlfriend?” Nathan asked as we walked to the living room.
