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“I’m not doing this because I forgot what we were,” he said. “I’m doing it because I remember every fucking part of it.”
“Even the good?”
His expression turned vicious. “What the fuck do you think destroyed me, Charm? The bad?” He stepped closer, his voice lowering into something sharper than shouting. “Especially the good. Every quiet morning, every book, every time you fell asleep against me, and every stupid fucking moment I believed you were finally mine. The study couldn’t have destroyed me if everything before it hadn’t been worth keeping.”
His gaze moved over my face without mercy.
“But none of it was mine to keep, was it? I walked into that room having no fucking clue how deep their claws were inside you. I thought I was fighting your fear. I didn’t understand I was fighting everything they taught you to value more than me.” His jaw tightened. “I never stood a chance, and you let me believe I had already won. You let me believe you were mine.”
Pain tightened my throat, but I refused to look away. “This weekend doesn’t erase that.”
“Fuck, no, it doesn’t.”
“It also doesn’t feel like an ending.”
A cold laugh left him without touching his eyes. “That’s because it isn’t Sunday.”
The certainty hurt, and I let it.
“You think Sunday changes what we are?”
“What we are is over. I think Sunday is when I go home with the book closed. The end. Terminé.”
“And if it’s not?”
“It will be.”
The answer came without hesitation. Ryan believed it.
I placed my fingers against the wooden heart beneath his hand. “Then let me keep trying.”
“I never told you to stop.”
Hope moved through me before I could contain it.
Ryan caught my chin, holding my face toward his. “Don’t confuse permission with progress, mami. You said you weren’t going to fight fair. I said I’d enjoy watching you lose.”
“You’re so sure.”
“I have six months as your secret and fifteen months of rage for evidence.”
“And I have this morning.”
His mouth curved. “A piggyback ride and me fingering you isn’t rebuilding a relationship.”
“No.” I leaned into his hold. “It’s reminding you how good being with me feels.”
“I never forgot.”
“Then my campaign is going beautifully.”
“You’re still losing.”
“Charm one. Ryan zero.”
He shook his head and rolled his eyes before huffing a frustrated chuckle. “I fucked you against a door and left with my heart exactly where I put it.” He stepped closer and bent his mouth to my ear. “Which is in a place I will never let you access again.”
The words struck hard, but I saw what remained behind them. Ryan could lock his heart away and still admit he’d brought it to this castle.
