Page 90 of His to Seduce
Chapter 30
Camden
“I love you.”
The quiet, glittering echo of his words rang through me like a resounding gong. Banging and crashing.
My jaw fell open and I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He gave me everything so easily.
I was falling for him.
I cared about him more than any man I’d ever been with before. More than I ever thought possible.
“Your scar. What happened to you?”
He snapped me back to the present like the flick of a rubber band.
“I can’t…”
“You don’t want to.”
“Why are you making me? Why are you doing this? We were doing so well…”
“Because I love you,” he repeated. “And I know you feel it, too. And I want all of you.”
And damn it, he was right. About all of it.
“I can’t be in this alone,” he said, his voice thick with pain I knewIwas causing and didn’t seem able to stop. “When you pushed me, I caved. Why can’t you do this for me?”
“I…” Three simple words. They lodged in my throat and I rubbed the burn with my hand on my neck. I wanted to say them. I felt them. I knew I did. I had stronger feelings for David than I had ever felt for anyone.
Fear froze me, slammed down between us like a clear sheet of glass. You couldn’t see it, but as his hopeful expression turned to pain, it was thick and obvious between us.
“You don’t have to say it back.”
I couldn’t. Would I ever be able to? In my panic, I saw Trenton all over again, walking away because I couldn’t do what he needed me to, couldn’t open up.
“I…” Why couldn’t I speak? A whirlwind rushed around me, sucking me into a vortex.
In front of me, David stepped back. A foot that felt like a mile as his hands fell to his sides. He’d pursued me steadfastly, given me time, and I could see it in his expression as he took another step back: everything was in my court now. I hated the distance but couldn’t reach out to pull him back. “I’m sorry…I have to go,” I said.
“Don’t.”
“I have to, I’m sorry.”
“Cam, this doesn’t change things. I scared you, but all you have to do isknowI love you. I didn’t say it to hear it back; I said it because I felt it.”
My trembling hand swiped across my mouth. Kiss by kiss, he’d torn down my walls. Panicked breath by panicked breath, they were going up again without my being able to stop it.
“Why does this scare you?” He reached for me, and I let him. I let him place tender hands around my shoulders, curve along my biceps, and grip me tightly but gently at the same time. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Everything. Nothing. I had given him as much as I could, and it still wasn’t enough.
Tears burned my eyes and the back of my throat, making it hard to breathe, hard to see him.
I was hopeless. This…this inability to truly be free. It paralyzed me and killed me, and I couldn’t stop it.
“Goodbye, David.”
