Mine to Keep (Mine #2)(30)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Jaw clenching, he headed toward her. “I hate you found out this way—”

“As opposed to what?” Skye asked as she slowly advanced to meet him. “Continuing to not know? Letting you keep your secrets?” When she was close enough, Skye paused and tipped her head back to gaze up at him. “Is that the way you wanted things to be? You controlling everything while I wandered around in the dark?”

“Hell, no, Skye, I just—” He broke off, yanking his temper back in check. She deserved her fury. He just had to find a way to get her calm again.

“I can see it, you know.”

His brows lifted.

“Right now, you’re trying to figure out how to handle me. I’m a problem, and you want me fixed.”

Trace shook his head. “No, no, you’re not a problem.”

“Then maybe you are.” And she pushed by him.

That was when Trace noticed the little bag that rested at the end of the couch. A small, overnight bag.

His heart stopped. “You’re leaving.” No, no, she couldn’t leave.

“I need some space. This place…” Skye waved her hands. “I see you everywhere. I feel you everywhere.”

He didn’t move toward her. If he did, Trace was afraid that he’d grab her and hold on tight.

“I need to think, and I can’t do that when I feel like you’re surrounding me.”

Right then, he could barely think. Just breathing was a monumental effort.

“I didn’t want to leave before you got back, because I knew you’d just worry about me.”

He forced his back teeth to unclench. “Where will you go?”

“The studio. I have the apartment upstairs there, and I’ve been working on it for the last few days, getting it set up.”

What? “You knew you’d leave me?”

“No.” A sharp shake of her head. “I just wanted to have a place set up, just for me. We all need our refuges.”

But she wasn’t supposed to need a refuge when it came to him. He wanted to be her refuge.

“I don’t want you to leave me.” The words felt torn from him. Because they were.

She glanced down at the bag. “And I don’t want to leave.” Her laughter was soft. Even sadder than her eyes. “You know what I really want to do? I want to act as if nothing has happened. As if you didn’t keep guards on me for years. As if you didn’t lie to me. I want to sweep it all under the rug and just be with you.”

Hell, yes. He closed in on her. “Then do that. Nothing has changed. Not the way I feel about you. Not the way you feel about me.”

“I love you.” Her whisper sank into his skin. “Loving you is as natural as breathing for me, and I’m afraid. So afraid.”

He didn’t want her to fear him.

That was why she still didn’t know his darkest secrets.

“I’m afraid that if I don’t watch myself, I’d forgive you for anything.” Her lashes lifted. Her eyes held his. “I don’t want to lose myself in you.”

He didn’t have a response for that. His gaze fell on her left hand, on the ring that still gleamed there. She hadn’t taken it off.

She’s just asking for a night.

He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’ll have a car take you to the studio.”

“And you’ll have a guard watch me all night?”

His lips thinned.

“No guards. I need to live the way everyone else does. I want to be on my own. I want to be able to face the darkness and not always need—”

“Me,” he finished gruffly.

Skye stared back at him, but then she nodded. She bent and her fingers curled around the handle of her bag. Then she was walking toward the door with her usual, graceful stride.

Was she just going to leave without looking back?

She paused. Stared straight ahead. “There are more secrets, right?”

Yes, there were.

“I don’t want secrets between us. I want all of you. Good and bad. And when you don’t tell me everything…” Her shoulders hunched. “That says that you think I’m weak. That I can’t handle you as you really are.”

No, it wasn’t like that.

“I don’t want secrets. And if you only give me part of yourself…” She drew in a deep, shuddering breath, “That’s not going to be enough for me.” Tears thickened her voice.

He stood, rooted to the spot, as she left him.

The door closed softly behind her.

***

He didn’t run after her. Skye had never expected Trace to do that. He wasn’t the running sort.

She managed to keep her tears back until she was in the elevator. Then they slid down her face.

The overnight bag dropped from her hand.

Leaving him felt so wrong.

I need a night. Just a night to think.

Because if she stayed, Skye had no doubt that they’d wind up in bed together. The need and lust always seemed to burn between them, surging strongly no matter what else was happening.

How many lies has he told me?

The elevator doors opened. She wasn’t particularly surprised to find Reese standing on the other side of those doors. Without a word, he bent and scooped up her bag.

She swiped away her tears and crossed the lobby.

They rode in silence to her studio.

Reese parked, then came to open her door.

When she rose, his fingers slid around her wrist. “You know he’s not an easy man. He just…he just wanted to keep you safe.”

This was the part that Trace didn’t seem to understand, either. “For ten years, I thought he’d forgotten me. Just left me. I ached for him, and he was gone.” His choice. “Now I learn that for the whole time, he had guards on me. He sent them, but he never said a word to me.” Inside, she felt a seething mix of pain and betrayal. She looked up, but the darkness concealed Reese’s expression. “You know more of his secrets than I do.”

“Don’t you know he’s afraid?” Reese asked. “He doesn’t want to lose you.”

“So I’m supposed to forgive everything? Live with his secrets?” She shook her head. “I can’t.” Skye took her bag from Reese and went into her studio.

***

“She’s safe and sound, boss.”

Trace stared down at the bed. Without Skye there, it seemed too big and too damn empty. “Thanks, Reese.” Her sweet vanilla scent drifted in the air.

“You want me to stay here? Keep an eye on the place tonight?”