Authors: Anna Antonia
My Love Break (21 page)
RISA
Strange how I nearly managed a coup.
I could see Damian coming closer to my line. He wanted me. Punish, tame, love—it didn’t matter. I just knew he was coming for me.
Damian was
choosing
me.
Not his rules. Not what he believed he had with Gretchen.
Me.
Victory would’ve been sweet.
It would’ve been if his cell phone didn’t ring.
Gaze locked on mine, Damian slid his hand into his pocket and then pulled it out. The phone stopped and then rang again.
Again and again.
Neither of us would speak, especially not with my question hanging in the air.
Finally, Damian made his decision. He answered the phone with a curt, “What?” Silence and then, “Gretchen was to wait until I came for her.”
My mouth curled into a bittersweet smile full of regret. I learned it too late. Nothing changed. It was always the same.
Memories of that long-ago date where I first saw Gretchen mixed with the first night I slept with Damian and lost my soul.
We were damned to always wait for this man. Moths to the cold flame of his heart, we waited for him to love us, to remember us, to lose us.
Loving Damian was pain and pleasure. The more pain I suffered the greater the reward.
I wanted to win him back to me, but at what cost?
Something has to give.
Taking advantage of Damian’s distraction, I unlocked the door and walked out. It was barely better than the night I last left him. At least this time I wasn’t a coward. I spoke from my heart. Too bad for me he couldn’t answer in kind.
“Risa!”
I kept going. Maybe he’d catch me by the private elevator. Maybe then Damian would pick me up and throw me onto his bed. Maybe there’d be a needle filled with a colorless lullaby. Maybe I’d wake up far from here, trapped by his arrogance and my stubbornness.
Please. Let’s do it all over again. I’ll get it right this time. I swear.
Damian reached me just as the doors slid open. Gretchen and Leon were there, beautiful as a painting. Fire and the sun. Perfect.
They stepped out. The four of us stood in the foyer, silent and waiting.
Always waiting.
“It’s like life, little girl. It hurts at first but then it’s all worth it.”
The course of Damian and Risa had been forever altered the fateful night he almost died. We couldn’t go back. We couldn’t recapture who we were.
No matter how much I wished it, no matter how perfect I tried to be, I couldn’t change this.
My ankle throbbed from the ghostly sensation of a chain that would never be there again. I closed my eyes, feeling the weight of its loss crush me.
Something has to give.
I straightened my shoulders and swept my gaze across them all. “I’m on my way out. Please enjoy your evening.”
“Risa, don’t you dare!” Damian snapped, uncaring of our audience.
I stepped around Leon and pushed the button. The elevators opened with a well-mannered hiss. I stepped in and turned around.
Damian lunged for me only to have Leon block his way.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Leon broke from tradition and spoke in English. “You have to let her go.”
I received the message loud and clear. Especially since Damian could’ve easily broken free from the blond bodyguard.
He didn’t. Instead, he watched me leave. The very thing he wouldn’t do before.
The doors closed. I stood upright in the storm of my emotional winter.
“Because I want forever with you, Risa.”
I wanted to believe those words were still true. I wanted to believe them even though Damian had let me go.
I walked out of the building and entered a world where I was free to go wherever I wanted.
No one would stop me from bedding the first man who reminded me of who I’d lost.
No one would stop me from boarding a plane and flying away from this madness.
No one would stop me from doing anything.
My hand drifted across my heart. I was right that long ago first night. I learned to make very good friends with pain.
So now what?
Marcus’s Mercy (A Dark Romance Serial)
Marcus’s Mercy #1
Marcus’s Mercy #2
Marcus’s Mercy #3
Mad, Bad, & Dangerous to Love Series
Mad for You
First Night (A Mad for You Short)
First Lines (A Mad for You Short)
Bad for You
Dangerous for You
All to Love You
Dark Romance Collection
Under His Hand
Rebecca and Trevor
Being Trevor’s – A Novella
My Love Series
My Love Forgive
My Love Break
My Love Regret (Upcoming)
Anna is a lover of all things dark and passionate. Living in the Southeastern United States, she enjoys antiquing, DIY thrift store finds, sedate hiking along trails, and spending time with her family and menagerie of pets. Being the only girl in a household full of men makes it hard to always be a lady, but she gives it a good old college try.
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