“Stay for dinner,” Ash said.
Kallie closed her eyes before she took a step away from him.
“I can’t,” she said.
“Come on. Stop fighting this, Kallie. Stop making excuses. I know you’re scared. I’m scared too. And yes, we’ve lived lives before we met, and we’ve been through things no one could even imagine. That’s what happens in life. But I know you feel this. I know you just felt what I did.”
“Ash, I can’t—”
“It’s been torture for me to stand by you for four hours and not touch you. Not kiss you.”
His hand reached out for her face and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
“Not taste you,” he said mindlessly.
“Ash, you aren’t listen—”
“I want you, Kallie. More than anything. And I’m not going to stop pursuing you,” he said.
“It isn’t that I don’t want to, Ash. I actually can’t,” Kallie said. “Not tonight.”
White-hot heat was pulsing through her veins. Desire was bursting in her gut. She could still feel the lingering of Ash’s lips upon hers and she wanted to feel it again. She wanted to be wrapped up in his arms again. To feel his naked body against hers again.
“Why not tonight?” he asked.
“I already have plans,” Kallie said defeatedly.
“Then cancel them.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I have to return this necklace,” she said.
“What necklace?”
Kallie groaned as she took another step away from Ash.
“I’m busy tonight, okay? It’s not an excuse. I actually have plans.”
She could feel his eyes on her. Burrowing a hole into the side of her face. Her cheeks blushed with embarrassment at the mere thought of it. Successfully manipulated by her ex-fiancé into dinner. It was pathetic and she knew it. Her eyes chanced a look up at Ash and his sight was narrowed, reading her like an open book.
“Ash—”
“Are you meeting with Eris?” he asked.
Kallie shook her head and watched as he balled up his fists at his side.
“Ash ... it isn’t—”
Then he was the one to take a step away. Inch by inch, putting more space between them. Kallie took a step toward him and his body stiffened. She stopped immediately, clocking his reaction to her closeness.
“It isn’t what you think,” Kallie said.
“That phrase sounds familiar.”
“Then you know it’s true.”
Ash bit down onto his lip and Kallie cursed herself for ever getting into this situation. For ever walking into the building and succumbing to his plea for help. For ever picking up that phone call or taking that package from that damn delivery man or even leaving the island early.
Kallie cursed everything that had led her to this point.
That had led to the distance between her and a man she naturally gravitated toward.
Chapter 14
Ash
Ash immediately felt her absence, but he ignored the longing. He kept stepping back from her, trying to ignore the rage boiling in his chest. He crossed his arms over his chest to hide his fists. Kallie was meeting another man tonight. He could tell. Those red cheeks of shame and the guilty look in her eye. Her skin was still flushing down her neck and she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Not when it counted.
He needed to know.
Ash needed to know who she was meeting
“You’re seeing him again, aren’t you?” he asked. “The man from your apartment.”
“Please don’t do this,” Kallie said.
“I haven’t done anything. There was a man in your apartment when I arrived in the city. That’s who you’re seeing tonight, isn’t it?” he asked.
He watched Kallie take in a deep breath and he braced himself for the impact. For the hurt her words were going to bring him. Rejected for another man. A man who wasn’t good enough for her. Part of him feared she would lie to him. Tell him what he wanted to hear instead of the truth. But instead of a lie, he got the truth.
And he wasn’t sure if it was any better.
“I am,” Kallie said.
“You’re having dinner with him.”
“I am.”