DARE-TO-LOVE-TRUTH-AND-DARE-DUET-COLLECTION-by-Lylah-James-pdfarchive

His expression was thunderous. “Yeah. So?” he seethed.
“What do you want to know?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked quietly.
“You never gave me a chance to.”
“You could have yelled it in my face,” I shot back,
leaving the comfort of the blankets and standing up.
Maddox and I were toe to toe. His jaw clenched, and his
shoulders tightened. A strong wind blew over us, and I
shivered, feeling the winter coldness seeping through the
layers of clothes I had on.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked again. “Why did you
let me believe the worst?”
His blue eyes flared, but his lips clammed shut. He stood
stubbornly quiet. I stabbed a gloved finger into his chest.
“Tell me! I want to know!”
“Because,” Maddox barked. His arm snaked out sharply,
and he gripped my bicep, shaking me. His head dipped low,
his cold breath fanning over my frozen lips. “Because I’d
rather you believe the worst in me than give you hope, only
to have it snatched away from you!”
He released me abruptly, and I stumbled back. Maddox
made a wounded sound in the back of his throat, as he ran
his hand over his head, his fingers tugging on his hair. “I
didn’t know if I’d be able to gather all the proof I needed. I
didn’t know if we could reopen and win this case! I didn’t
fucking know, and I needed to be prepared. I didn’t want to
see that hope in your eyes, only for it to wither away, if we
couldn’t… if we couldn’t… fuck, Lila! WHAT DO YOU WANT
FROM ME?”
“I want you,” I barely breathed through my cold,
freezing lips. “Just you.”
“Stop,” he croaked.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “For finally telling me the
truth. That’s what I wanted to hear.”
His lips curled with a sneer. “Leave now.”