Fuckin’ Kiernan. Been a pain in my ass since I met him. I’m done with his shit. There’s gotta be another guy out there who’s as skilled on a computer and in the field. I’ll buy out his shares in the company and make sure to kick his ass as he walks out the door.

Harper’s fury is rolling off of her in waves. My eyes are still on the closed door my soon-to-be-dead best friend walked through. Meddling shithead. I grit my teeth before turning back to Harper. The anger shining in her bright eyes doesn’t take away from her beauty. She’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I saw her before she saw me all those years ago. Ran smack dab into a fucking locker. Her beauty stunned me, still stuns me. By some serious stroke of luck, she looked my way.

“Dios mio.”

I can’t stop my eyes from flicking all over her face. She wants to scream and make me burn for lying to her. I want to make her scream and burn. Scream my name. Burn for me. Her lush, pink lips are pursed as she glares at me.

“You’re stunning.”

A small flare of her anger deflates as she looks at me with a slightly softer expression, even though the annoyance is still there. The vulnerable hope only lasts a second before a cold, impenetrable wall slams down over her expression. My gut twists and bile rises in my throat, knowing it’s me and my choices that have shut her off from me. I could read her entire mood and thought process with one look when she was mine. She couldn’t hide anything from me. Her expressions and eyes were goddamn open books for me, giving me everything she had.

I lean in closer, too desperate for a reaction, any reaction. Lust. Happiness. Desperation. Rage. Anything. Harper’s breath hitches when my nose glides along her cheek toward her ear. Her eyes slam shut as her pink lips part, taking in a breath when I whisper in her ear. “Daria cualquier cosa por sentir tu piel contra la mía y estar dentro de ti, llenándote.” She’s always begs me to tell her what I say in Spanish. I don’t wait for to ask, I tell her before she even has the chance. “I’d give anything to feel your skin against mine and be inside of you, filling you.”

She shudders against me, her hand coming to my chest, gripping my shirt tightly in her fist. Yes, give me everything, Sugar. My dick is straining against my shorts. I slide my lips along her cheek until they’re resting against her lips. I breathe deeply though my nose when our lips touch, resisting the temptation to lift her off her feet and slam my cock against her center. She’d run if I did that. Slowly opening my mouth to trace my tongue along her bottom lip, I urge her to open for me. She does. She sighs and my entire body is on fire.

I groan as our tongues tangle. Her hand moves up my chest to my neck then my hair, tugging on my ends. I grab the back of her head, angling her and deepening our kiss. Harper whimpers when I break our kiss and sighs when I press my lips to hers again, dying for another taste. I slide my hand down her hip to cup her ass and bring her toward me, rocking my erection against her. And, just as I feared. She breaks our kiss, bringing her hand back down to my chest, clutching my shirt and leaning her head against my chest.

“You can’t do this to me, Roman. Please.” Her soft voice breaks on the last word. It feels like a grenade explodes in my chest, knocking the air from my lungs and obliterating when I see the tears in her eyes.

I rest my forehead against hers for a moment before kissing her forehead, letting my lips linger against her skin. “I’m sorry, Sugar. I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry for every single damn thing I’ve ever done, even the things you don’t know about.”

Her eyes look up at me again, hands resting against my chest as I have her wrapped in my arms. I’d give her anything to make her stay right here, wrapped up in me.

“Everything,” she whispers sullenly.

“Yes, everything.”

“Kiernan said that, too, before he left. What is everything you need to tell me? What’s everything you’re sorry for?”

“Fuck,” I mutter, frustrated with the bastard all over again. “Too dangerous, Harp.”

Harper pushes me away from her, running her hands through her hair before meeting my eyes, staring at me earnestly with tears in her beautiful, amber eyes. “You can’t decide those things for me, Roman. This is my life. You have to tell me. Everything.”

I take a step toward her, but she walks around me, shaking her head. “No, this can’t happen. You can’t touch me. You can’t do this to me. You’re going to leave again but this time when you do, I’m going to be in one piece.”

“I never left you, Harper,” I say softly, begging for the impossible—for her to suddenly not be so curious and to just let it go. I want to us to move forward, not dredge up the past.

Harper whips, around staring at me incredulously, opening and closing her mouth before she starts yelling. “How can you say that to me? You never left? You fucking broke my heart over the phone. You never looked back. I was lost without you, desperate to be yours, I drove thirteen hours straight to knock on your door and some girl wearing your shirt answered.”

I interrupt her before she can continue. “What the fuck are you talking about? What girl?”

“Yeah,” she laughs humorlessly. “I bet they all blend together after a while, huh? Gorgeous girl, tall. Wearing. Your. Fucking. Shirt.”

“There’s an explanation for that,” I grit out through my teeth. “I wasn’t with anyone for a long fucking time after you. My roommate was manwhore, she was probably one of his and laundry got mixed up. You’re searching for any excuse to get rid of me.”

She doesn’t say anything, only rolls her eyes as if I’m lying to her. “Believe me, Roman, you slept with her.”

“When did you come to see me?” I ignore her jabs about this nameless girl. I don’t know who the fuck she’s talking about. After I broke up with Harper, I didn’t look at another girl for a long damn time. Even after I saw Harper with someone else. Just weeks after we broke up. She couldn’t have been as heartbroken as she’s claiming. I was the poor sap who could do nothing but drink until the urge to go back to her wore off. When I finally did go to see her, she was wrapped in someone else’s arms.

Thoughts of pulling the guy limb from limb floated through my mind. I wanted to tear him apart and put him in the ground for even looking at Harper. I knew when I broke up with her the wolves would descend. Someone as special as Harper wasn’t going to be single for long. There was a long line after me, waiting for me to screw shit up, to scoop her up and claim her as their’s. I hated myself even more, knowing I was the reason that she was with someone else. That was what I wanted, though, wasn’t it? I wanted her to be happy and not wait for me, to go after everything she wanted.

And, look at her now. Stunning. Perfect. Smart. College-educated. Owning her own damn business. A great group of friends. This is why I did what I did, so she could get here, not be stuck on some base hoping and praying I’ll come home to her in one piece, dreading every knock on the door.

She hasn’t answered my question as I follow her into the kitchen, watching her pour herself a glass of wine and sit on top of the counter. “I came to see you the day my family died. Actually, I found out they died in your apartment parking lot.”

My heart stops beating as I stare at her. She was there? The day they died? How could I not know about this? “Why didn’t you knock on the door?”

“I did.”

I shake my head. “I would have answered and I certainly would have remembered if you had come to see me.”

“That’s what I’m saying, Roman. I did come see you. I did knock. It was pouring down rain, I just found out my entire family was dead. I knocked on your door, needing you more than ever. Even if you didn’t love me anymore, at least not love me the way I loved you.”

She stops taking in a breath as I struggle to keep breathing. Loved. Past-tense. There’s nothing about my feelings for Harper that are past tense. Every beat of my heart is for her. Each time she’s near me and my blood roars in my veins, creating an electricity I only feel when she’s close to me, that’s for her. It’s all for her. It’s always been for her.

She keeps going, not realizing I’m in fucking agony, that each of her words are ripping me open like bullet holes. “I needed you.” Another shake of her head, clearing it, erasing her need for me. “A girl answered. She was wearing one of your high school shirts and was extremely nice when she told me you were sick of me. I was just some pathetic girl from back home. You two laughed about me while you were in bed together, she was there when you dumped me over the phone. And the last tiny thread of hope and of my heart I was holding on to for dear life, snapped and washed away with the rain.”

Oh, fuck no.