Chapter Fourteen
Dani
After a sleepless night, I rolled out of bed with my head groggy and sleep-crusted eyes. But it was my day off and I wanted to go look around the shops. There were only a few days left until my flight home, and I wanted to make the most of India before leaving.
Besides, now that I knew Hunter was here, I couldn’t wait to get away.
I walked outside, shopping bag in hand, when I saw Hunter standing there, that big form looming with his blue eyes intense. My heart sank. Why couldn’t he just leave me alone? He’d already broken my heart – and now he wanted to do it all over again?
“Dani!” growled the man. “Just give me a second of your time.”
“I don’t want to talk to you,” was my cold reply. “You should have listened to me last night.”
“But I want to talk to you,” he reiterated, seizing my arm and twirling me around to face him.
I was prepared to slap him and scream until I saw the look of desperation in his eyes. And oh god, but the man was handsome too. A year had been good to him. Even though he had a slight beard, the stubble made him look like a sexy professor.
I hated him for it even more.
Why did he look so good without me? I’d gained weight and my skin was blotchy from the pollution in India. Even worse, I was a wreck whereas he looked coolly composed. It didn’t seem fair.
“We have nothing to say to each other,” was my prim response.
His eyes flashed.
“We have everything to say to each other. I’ve been waiting to talk to you for a lifetime. It’s too much of a coincidence that we’re both in Kolkata. It’s fate.”
I scoffed. “I don’t believe in fate.”
“You did once,” Hunter rumbled. His voice recalled that magical night we’d spent together under the stars. “And you should believe again.”
I shook my head sadly. “I’m not that girl anymore. I’ve changed. You’ve changed. We can’t go back, we can only move forward.”
A pause for a moment.
“What if I want to move forward with you?”
My jaw dropped. Was this guy crazy? I took a deep breath, trying to collect my thoughts.
“You had your chance, Hunter. You could have called me. You knew where I was. You have unlimited resources, for God’s sake! But no, not a peep. Not when you got what you wanted and didn’t need me anymore.”
His jaw stiffened, a muscle flexing in his cheek. “What are you talking about?”
I took a deep breath and swallowed hard. “You took what you wanted – my virginity. You had no intention of being with me. Was it good for you? Did you get a good laugh at tricking the poor girl? I bet you told all your rich friends. I bet you bragged,” I said softly, my voice just above a whisper. But suddenly, anger overtook my form, and balling my hands into fists, I slammed them into his chest. “I can’t believe I was so stupid to believe that you loved me!”
Hunter grabbed my shoulders, holding me back at a distance. “I did love you. I do love you,” he vowed, looking into my eyes. “I never stopped loving you.”
Hot tears filled my eyes and I tried to blink them away. “If you loved me, you wouldn’t have left me.”
But Hunter shook his head.
“I didn’t have a choice. My father gave me an ultimatum. Either leave you or he was going to take the company away from me,” he said, averting his eyes. He let me go and walked away, breathing hard. “It was the most difficult thing to do, and I made the wrong choice by choosing Maddox Media over you. I’ve been regretting it every single day.”
I stood there, dumbfounded. “What?”
Hunter nodded imperceptibly.
“Hugh thought you would ruin me, so he wanted me to cut ties with you. And he was right, you did ruin me. But not in the way my father expected because I made a huge mistake that night. I should never have left you.”
I looked at him, unable to find any words as Hunter continued.
“I threw myself into work, thinking that if I worked harder, maybe I could finally exorcise you from my mind. But the more I worked, the more regret I felt. There hasn’t been a day when you weren’t on my mind. And then finally, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I left. I left everything behind. I moved to India with nothing more than the clothes on my back. My inheritance, my job, all gone up in flames. But it didn’t matter, because none of that meant anything.”
I was shocked. “You gave up your company?”
“Yes. And I should have done it before. I should have done it the day when my father asked me to choose. But I chose wrong, and there will never be a day that I don’t regret it. I want you to know, I choose you now.”
I stared at Hunter, unable to believe what I was hearing. He took a deep breath, taking my trembling hands between his big ones.
“Dani, I will choose you always. I just hope you can give me a second chance.” Hunter’s voice softened and I could tell there was real feeling in his heart.
I stared at him, like I was seeing the man for the first time. He looked older and wiser. There were faint lines around his eyes that hadn’t been there before, as well as brackets around his mouth, making him look distinguished. But the ache in my chest was still there, thumping dully beneath my breast. What if he hurt me again?
“I don’t know if I can,” was my anguished whisper. “My heart is too broken.”
But Hunter shook his head fiercely.
“You don’t know unless you try. Please, Dani.”
My chin quivered as I stared into my former lover’s cerulean gaze. “I’m so sorry, Hunter. I just don’t know if I can.”