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“Enough, Clio! You’re reading this all wrong”

Shaking her head, she ran a hand over her cheeks “The sad part is you don’t even realize it You’re givingI offer you, you already have a reason for it Because you don’t have to accept anything I give you”

“No, bella” His olive green gaze turned hard, untouched “You toldfro from you”

“All I wanted was one sentence that you wanted this to be real between us, that you wanted to at least try That you want to see where we could go from here”

“It is what I want, too”

“With a caveat, yes The awful thing is I’m so anxious in here—” she rubbed her chest, as if she could relieve the tightness there “—so ten the damn papers, to accept the little crumbs you will throw me So inso in love with you that I’ive me How pathetic is that?”

Stepping back froh he couldn’t bear to hear the weight of her confession

As though he never wanted to set eyes on her

As though she had stuck a knife in his back while s to his face

And it was the haunted expression in his gaze, the horrified look that sealed her fate for Clio, that ripped her last thread of hope into pieces

He would never accept her love He would never give her his trust

“You’re not in love withyourself like every other woman that has come into my bed before you I warned you about that, bella”

The nasty barb landed where he intended, lacerating her, carving a nice little slice in her breastbone

That he would throw his own past in her face, that he would dirty him and her and what they shared, only showed how much her declaration rattled him, how deeply buried his heart was

She wished she could be furious with him, she wished she could hate him for it

But all she felt was a keening gnawing that ate through her gut