Page 15 of Wicked Shadows
“You think I’m scared?”
“I know you are.” She smirked.
“Of what? I can’t wait to hear this.”
“You’re a career bachelor, Shadow. You come and go as you please. Even in her life—you said you just show up out of the blue with no warning when it’s convenient for you. She drops everything for you every time you appear, doesn’t she? Gives up her plans without hesitation. Devotes every waking moment to you.”
"Yeah." He drew out the one-syllable word, hesitant to hear the rest of Brianna's scolding.
“Hmm.”
He didn't like that sound. Nothing good ever came from that sound. "What?"
"Just wondering. In the last eight years of this so-called relationship, what exactly have you given up for Elle?"
Her words hit him like a sledgehammer to his stomach, stealing his breath and rendering him speechless. He was unable to argue with her logic, because she’d been correct in everything she'd said to that point. He'd only fooled himself into believing his pathetic excuses. There were some events from the past year he couldn’t bring himself to tell Brianna, though. Truths he had difficulties dealing with in his own mind, much less verbalizing. The most frightening unanswered questions popped into his mind without Brianna even addressing them first.
How long ago did Elle figure me out?
Are the rumors about her and Jax truths instead?
Has she given up on me and moved on to him?
"Yeah, that's what I thought. Shadow, only you can decide what you really want. You've been alone for a long time, and maybe you like it that way. But if she's the one you love, and you can't stand to think of her with someone else, you need to do something about this situation soon. That news about her and Jax could be complete hyperbole. But is that a chance you think you should take?"
“Thanks for the talk, Sunny. As usual, you’ve given me a lot to think about.”
* * *
Shadow strodeinto his twelfth-floor condo and walked straight out onto the balcony overlooking the ocean. His thoughts had stayed on Elle since he left Noah's house, but his conversation with Brianna struck a sensitive chord he didn’t even know he had. With his forearms resting on the railing, he stared off into the night, second-guessing his every decision and revisiting his every mistake.
His mind soon drifted back to their first night together eight years earlier.
He could still feel her quivering under his touch. She tried so hard to hide her apprehension, but he could be blind and deaf and still feel it rolling off her like the waves crashing on the shore. The rapid rise and fall of her chest, the pink tinge of her cheeks, and the dilation of her pupils were all telltale signs. Signs he was trained to identify.
But he couldn’t deny her desire for him.
The ringing of his personal cell phone pulled him from his ruminations, giving him a welcome reprieve.
Until he saw the caller’s name.
