Gavin knew her eyes were her enemy, betraying her in so many ways, but he also knew his actions by letting Gina in had caused the battle. God help him if this was a battle he was about to lose Emily over.

Tread.

He knew he had to tread lightly. The woman before him was broken and hurt, but his mind was frozen. He couldn’t seem to formulate his words quickly enough.

His lack of a speedy reply seemed to confirm what Emily knew to be true. He knew he’d been caught, and he had no idea what to say. Before Gavin could register what was happening, Emily brought her hand up and smacked him hard across his face, the sound pitching over the pelting rain.

He staggered back slightly—completely stunned.

“You bastard!” she yelled, uncaring of passerby’s watching their exchange.

She glared daggers at him and went to smack him again, but his hand darted forward and caught her by the wrist.

“You have to listen to me, Emily,” he breathed out, his voice firm. She tried to yank her wrist away, but he pulled her into his chest. With his free hand, he smoothed the wet hair away from her face. “She was already gone by the time I got out of the shower. I had no idea you were there.” Emily’s eyes widened as she tried to pull away again. “No, wait! Fuck! It’s not at all what you think!”

Still trying to release herself from his grasp, tears spilled from her eyes. “Is that the best you could come up with?” she huffed, affecting a wicked sneer.

Trapped.

She felt trapped under the glare of those beautiful blue eyes, and she wasn’t about to let him suck her back under their spell. “You’re out of your mind if you think I’m falling for that one! You can’t lie your way back into my heart, Gavin. I hate what you did to me, what you did to us, and most of all, I hate you!” Part of her froze when those words tumbled from her mouth because she didn’t hate him. She couldn’t. She loved him—loved him clear to the bottom of her soul. However, everything she knew he’d stood for from the second she’d met him was everything he’d proven himself to be.

Gavin recoiled as though she hit him again. His heart sank as shock shifted to realization that he may have lost her—and losing her meant he would lose himself. “You don’t hate me. You love me,” he choked out, not trying to hide the pain that was ready to crush him. Lifting his arms, he held her face between his hands, stroking the pads of his thumbs over her lips. “And, Jesus Christ, Emily, I love you with everything inside of me, with everything I am, with everything I’ll ever be. Please. Don’t leave me like this, knowing if I just hadn’t let her in, this wouldn’t be happening right now. She came to my house, and I shouldn’t have let her in. I know I shouldn’t have, but she was drunk, and her—”

“Stop!” she blurted out, shoving her hand viciously against his chest. It worked because she finally released herself from his hold. Stepping onto the curb, hot angry tears rolled down her cheeks as she flared her arms in the air in an attempt to hail over a taxi. With curtains of rain falling from the sky, her efforts went unnoticed as drivers sped past, drenching her body further.

Approaching her, Gavin felt lightheaded, hollow, and empty. He took her firmly by the elbow and spun her around. Their eyes, both equally dripping with hurt, bore into one another’s. Bringing his arms up again, he cupped her cheeks and lowered his forehead against hers.

“You have to believe me,” he whispered harshly, his voice laden with pain. “She passed out on my couch. I slept in my fucking room, and nothing—nothing at all—happened.” Now sobbing uncontrollably, Emily tried to back away, but Gavin moved his hands to the back of her neck and held her in place, his forehead still pressing against hers. “I told you that I’d never hurt you, and I meant it. I meant every fucking word. Please don’t do this to us…please. I’m not lying to you. I’m not him. I’m not Dillon.”

Feeling trapped in the darkness of his gaze, Emily’s heart paused as she watched tiny droplets of water trickle down his face—down to those perfect lips that had worshipped every inch of her body. Those perfect lips that had also worshipped another woman’s body after she’d left. Now her tears came in a torrent as the thought of what he had done hit her with brutal force.

Shaking her head, she took several steps back, her eyes glacial. Turning around, she raised her hand to hail a taxi again, and to her surprise, one pulled right over. She reached for the handle and swung the door open. Gavin’s hand quickly slammed against it, effectively keeping it shut.

“Let me get in, Gavin!”

“No. I’m not letting you go,” he said, his voice booming. “You don’t believe me?”

“I’m not kidding! Let me in!” she commanded again, the viciousness of her tone startling them both.

Running his free hand through his soaked hair, Gavin gritted his teeth. “You’ll believe the fucking lies he tells you on a daily basis, but you can’t believe me?”

“Oh, now you’re really reaching,” she scoffed, trying to remove his hand from the door. “He’s not the one who’s lied to me!”

“Goddamn it, Emily!” he snapped. Abruptly, he caught her by the waist and hauled her up tight against his chest. She sucked in an indignant breath as she stared into his eyes. “Don’t mistake my pleading with you as a weakness; I’m no asshole. I told you I’m not lying, but if you think for one fucking minute, he hasn’t—or that he’s not—then there’s seriously something wrong with you.”

“Hey,” the now impatient driver called out. “Is she getting in or not?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

They both quickly yelled in unison.

Gavin’s angry eyes snapped to the driver. “She’s not getting in. Leave. Now.”

With a pissy look in his eyes, the man shook his head and sped off.

“I can’t believe you,” Emily cried out, tears streaming down her face. Each one of her tears crashed around Gavin’s heart. She lifted her hands and pushed against his chest, but he secured her with his steely arm around her waist. “Why are you doing this to me, Gavin?”

“Because I fucking love you, and I’m not lying,” he answered, his breathing ragged and harsh. “Tell me right here and now that you don’t love me, and I’ll walk away. I’ll walk away, and you’ll never have to see me again.” With his free hand, he tilted her neck back. He dipped his head and started feathering his lips against her temple, down her cheek, and along the curve of her jaw. Emily couldn’t help it, but a light moan left her lips. “You’ll never have to feel me touch your body again, Emily. You’ll never have to hear my voice in your ears again. You’ll never have to wake up to me by your side again. Tell me right now that you don’t love me, and I’m gone…forever.”

Emily was shaking inside, but she wouldn’t show it. If she let anything slip through, she would break down, and that couldn’t happen. Though every fiber in her body wanted to believe him, she didn’t. This was a carefully thought-out skit that he was trying to manipulate her with. He was an actor on a stage, perfecting his skill, and Emily was his sole audience. Now it was her turn to send his heart straight into the crematory where hers now lie.

“I don’t love you,” she said, lying through her teeth. That lie was literally ripping her apart. Her eyes dripped with tears as she stared into his. “I told you I needed to get you out of my system, and I did. That’s all that night meant to me.”

Another lie.

However, there would be one truth that left her lips. “And I don’t believe a word that you’ve said.”

Gavin winced and held back stinging tears. Her parasitic words—each one of them—sucked the air straight out of his lungs. She took his heart, ground it up, and turned it into crimson paste right before his eyes. Struck nearly fucking speechless, he took a step back and released her from his hold.