“I hoped you wouldn’t.”
“Why?”
Skylar’s lips shift, and I brace for that brittle laugh. The one that rakes me to the bone.
It doesn’t come.
He walks away and it’s in me to let him. To believe the voice in my head—my voice—telling me it’s for the best. That he’s better off without me.
Thateveryoneis.
But Folk Whitlock. Cam O’Brian. They’re louder.Vinnieis louder. They drown out the bullshit and Skylar’s retreating back is the worst thing I’ve ever seen.
I surge from the sofa and chase him down. Catch him at his bedroom door and get a hand to the old wood before him. “Sky?—”
“No.” He spins and shoves me with both hands.Stronghands. “Leave me the fuck alone.”
I don’t move. Let him waste the force.
Jaw set, his lips twist again, but it’s a snarl this time, and the belying, vacant haze in his eyes is so like the night I met him I almost miss his bunched fist flying at my face.
Almost.
I don’t feel much like a soldier these days, but muscle memory kicks in. I block the hit. Let him land the next one on my ribs and absorb the pain of a punch that’s too efficient for me to believe he’s not capable of beating the shit out of someone.
His fury taints the air. I taste it as I shoot out a hand to grab his wrist, fingers wrapping around his cold skin too fast for him to stop me and he has to growl his fury instead.
“Get the fuck off me.”
“No.”
He fights me harder. I grab his other wrist, tug him close, and the sound that rips from his throat breaks my heart all over again.
“Let go.”
“No.”
“Why the fuck not?” Skylar pushes his chest at me, trying to move me with everything he has. “You want to bang me on the floor again?”
“No, because I fucking love you.”
Shock bleeds into his grey eyes, and for a hot second, it’s like the bruised shadows aren’t there. But the tension coiled in his body stays, and his nose flares with a rough exhale as he shakes his head, blond hair grazing my cheek. “Piss off.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t get to fucking do this! You don’t get to barge into my life and make me feel like I need you when I don’t fucking need anyone.”
“Why can’t you need someone?”
“Why can’tyou?” Skylar wrenches his arms and this time I release him. Release myself as he shoves me again and I lethim put a few feet of space between us. “Why the fuck are you standing in my way when you’re as bad as I am?”
“Told you. I love you.” Feels good to say it out loud. Freeing. Feels like shit to know he doesn’t believe me. That he doesn’t think I’m capable of it. Or that he’s fucking worthy. “Sky?—”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Why not?”
That laugh finally comes—a splintered thing torn from his gut. Skylar drags both hands to his head, fingers clenched in his hair like he wants to rip it out. Like he’s going to if I can’t find thedestructswitch buried deep inside him and flip it the other way. “Because my cunt of a mother calls me Sky, and fucking me a couple of times doesn’t mean you get to know that.”