“Talk”  she barked.

On an exhale, he said...

"Okay.  I’ll talk.  How about this....  I love you and I was a fool."

He wouldn’t run from the truth anymore.  He couldn’t.  Caleb had lied to himself, but that time was over and he wanted her to know the lengths he would willingly trod, if only to get her back.  He’d jumped off the Samaritan hamster wheel and he had the emotional cuts and bruises to prove it.  He had deep cleaned his life and he was ready for whatever stood to face him.  He had prepared himself to hear whatever Rachel dished out; good or bad, he would take it.  Seconds ticked yet, she didn’t respond to his declaration; she just stared at him.  When she pursed her lips, he felt his fingers twitch because all night he’d dreamed of what it would feel like, holding her in his arms.  Dear Lord, he wanted to kiss her.  She was so close to him, he could smell the alluring aroma of her perfume.  He wanted to linger there, inhaling her scent.  What a fool he’d been.  What an ignorant, idiotic fool.  He was experiencing a repeating loop when her words smacked him back to a state of reality.

She said...

“I don’t love you.  Now go.”

Caleb would have preferred another slap over rejection, and when she repeated her phrase, he felt like the ground had opened wide, swallowed him up, then spit him out, because not even the earth could abide his taste.

“Caleb...I do not love you...now go!  Leave....and don’t come back.  I mean it.”

He stepped so close, Rachel nearly stumbled backwards, until he steadied her, clasping hold to her forearm.  He raised his hand, then with his thumb, he stroked the length of her face, while saying...

“This isn’t over.”

Her comeback had been so fast, he almost needed her to repeat it.

“It’s over, if I say that it’s over.”

His lips curled with a sly grin, when he said...

“Then, I guess it’ll be up to me to prove to you that you’re wrong, because Rachel, it isn’t over.  We are not over, by a long shot.”

When he released her, she rocked unsteady but her stumble had been less unnerving than the fact that she couldn’t contrive not even one snotty retort.  She just couldn’t.  She stood gawking at him, dumbfounded, because in truth, his assertion had lit a flame.  Rachel’s heart drummed a pounding beat and the thrumming hummed up and down her thighs, threatening to weaken her knees.  What had he done to illicit this kind of a response from her.  She didn’t know, but whatever it was, she had to get away from him before she did something that she would later regret.  Something stupid like--giving him the opportunity to talk longer or forgiving his stubborn ass.

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For The Love Of Zoe

Harvester

Malfeasant

Floundering Adrift

Thrown Adrift

Taming Precious Sinclair

Laced Impulse

The Senator’s Choice

The Huffing Report

In The Live of Powerful Men