Been Loving You Too Long by Seraphina Donavan Page B

sex.   The need to be close to her, to feel the softness and warmth, wasn’t something he could afford.
    In a moment of weakness, he’d given in to the temptation he’d been fighting for years, but it changed nothing between them.   If nothing else, the intensity of his response to her only proved to him that he’d been right all along.  
    Ophelia deserved to be happy and she deserved to be with someone who could give her everything she wanted and deserved, but that would never be him.
    He knew the instant she awoke.   The rustling of sheets and the slight change in her breathing was all it took.   He was that attuned to her, that obsessed with her, he thought accusingly.  
    Turning to face the bed, he watched her sit up, her tousled hair falling over her shoulders and a sleepy smile curving her lips—she looked beautiful.
    Steeling himself, he knew what he needed to do.   There was no future for them and he wouldn’t hurt her anymore than he had to, by letting her think that there could be.   With his face set in hard lines, he said coolly and aloofly, “I’m sorry I woke you.”
    “You didn’t...not really.   Is everything alright?”
    He could hear the faint puzzled tone in her voice and he glanced out into the street again, half his face hidden by shadow.   “It’s fine.   We should get you home before it gets any later though.”   Those hadn’t been words he’d intended to say.   He wanted to tell her that she deserved more than him—better.   She deserved someone who didn’t have the kind of darkness in him that he did.  
    Now, he was behaving like a jackass and he knew it, but stopping it seemed to be just as far beyond his control as anything else he’d done that night.
    Even in the dim light that filtered in through the window, he could see her response.   The hurt and confusion on her face made him cringe. His gut twisted at the thought that he was hurting her, but he reasoned that doing it now, rather than later, would be for the best.  
    “Are you kicking me out?” she asked.  
    “I’m not kicking you out,” he replied calmly, though in fact, he was.   “I’m just mitigating the fall out of a bad decision.”   The minute the words escaped his mouth, he regretted them.   But it was too late to call them back, and if he wanted to put an insurmountable distance between them, they would do the trick.  

     
    ~~****~~
     

     
    Ophelia’s breath seized in her lungs.   It was almost like a slap.   It wasn’t as if she’d expected a happily ever after ending.   She didn’t believe in fairy tales and she certainly knew that Vincent was no prince charming.   But she hadn’t expected to be thrown out of his bed in the middle of the night.  
    “Of course,” she replied, her voice slightly clipped, the words as brittle as glass.   Pushing the sheets back, she rose and retrieved what was left of her clothing.   She had no idea where her torn underwear had wound up, but she wasn’t going to embarrass herself further by digging in the dark for them.
    Fastening her bra, she slipped her dress back on over her head.   The zipper was proving stubborn, but when she felt the weight of his presence behind her and the gentle brush of his hands on her back as he tried to assist her, fury washed through her.   “I don’t need your help!” she snapped, and then quickly moved away.   It wasn’t simply that it hurt.   She was humiliated.  
    “I’m sorry.”   
    “Sorry for what?” she asked.   “Sorry for breaking your damned rules or sorry for tossing me out of your bed in the middle of the night like some drunken mistake?”
    He stared at her for a long moment.   “I’m sorry that it can’t be what you want.”
    The shoe she’d picked up flew from her hand, sailing in his direction.   “Don’t you dare put that on me!   I never asked a thing from you!   I never made assumptions about what would or wouldn’t be between us—the only one doing that is