Page 215 of Reckless Obsession

“Then say what you mean.”

Tristan’s gaze drops to the floor between us.

“I knew he would get you somewhere safe,” he says. “I knew he would not leave you alone when you were hurting. And I knew that if I had come near you then, you would have looked at me the way you are looking at me now.”

“Like I hate you?”

“Like I had already broken you.”

The anger catches in my throat.

For a moment, I have nothing.

Then the familiar, poisonous thought forces its way back in.

“Is that what this is?” I ask, my voice dropping into a dangerous whisper. “You didn’t want to lose me, but you didn’t want to let go of Jake either? You wanted both of us? Keeping me on a leash in the dark while you paraded him in front of the world so you wouldn’t have to choose?”

Tristan’s face hardens instantly, a dark, possessive anger flashing across his features.

“Don’t put his name next to yours,” he grits out, leaning back in, refusing to let me pull away. “I only have feelings for you, Maksim. It has only ever been you.”

“Then why did you say you were back together?” The question cuts through the tension like a blade. “Why did every tabloid in this city run headlines that you and Jake were reconciling?” I press, staring intently into his face, watching every minute shift in his expression.

Tristan’s mouth presses into a flat, rigid line.

He goes dead silent.

The air between us turns suffocating. His dark gaze flickers away from mine for a fraction of a second, just enough to betray him.

My brows knit together as a sudden suspicion takes root in my chest. I study the tight set of his jaw, the shadow of exhaustion carved into the hollows of his cheeks, the hyper-vigilance vibrating under his skin like a live wire.

“You’re being threatened,” I whisper.

Tristan’s gaze snaps back to mine, his pupils flaring wide.

“Maksim, don’t—”

“Does my father know about us?”

The question hangs between us, terrifying and real. Tristan’s face loses what little color it had left. His broad chest rises and falls in shallow, jagged breaths.

“Is that why you pushed me away?” I ask, panic and fury tangling together in my throat. “Did my father find out? Did he threaten to destroy you if you didn’t end things with me?”

“It wasn’t your father!”

The words tear out of Tristan before he can bite them back. The silence that crashes down upon the room is absolute.

I freeze.

My eyes widen, tracking the sudden, raw panic flashing across his face as he realizes what he just let slip.

“So you were threatened,” I breathe, every missing piece of the last three months slamming together in a blinding flash of clarity. “You were threatened, not by my father but by someone else. Someone forced your hand. Someone made you push me away.”

“Maksim, stop,” Tristan urges, his voice trembling as he loosens his grip on me and retreats, raising his hands in a frantic effort to halt the discussion. “You don’t understand. It’s not like that.”

“Don’t you dare lie to me!” I yell, grabbing his shirt in both fists and shaking him. “Who is threatening you? Who forced you to use Jake as a cover? Tell me the truth, Tristan!”

“I am trying to keep you out of this!” he roars back.