Inevitable by A.S Roberts Page B

whole of me all at once. I hung on for all I was worth to the front of his white shirt.
    It was with some reluctance I allowed him to break away and stare into my eyes.
    ‘Why, darlin… why couldn’t you share that with me before? … I just don’t understand.’ He bent his knees now to look at me questioningly, ‘That’s not fucking everything, is it? … I can read you like a book, so what’s the rest?’ The one arm that was around my body and pulling me tightly to him, like he was afraid I was going to disappear into thin air, started to release its hold. I willed him to hold on a while longer. I would eventually tell him, but for now I hoped what I’d already said would be enough.
    Please, please let it be enough.
    ‘ The truth, Bella… or I walk.’ He completely released me and I stood shivering in front of him. I shivered from the cold, but mainly from the loss of his touch. I placed both of my arms around myself, to try to find a modicum of comfort and warmth. My burnt palm throbbed as it connected with my own skin. I watched as he began to walk around me, stopping every now and then to stare at me expectantly. I swallowed and summoned up all the strength I had.
    ‘Nathan… It was a long time ago and I was very young and SO bloody stupid… I thought I loved him… I would have done anything for him, you have to understand that.’ I paused and took stock of how he stood frozen to the spot, arms crossed over his chest, his eyes begging mine to continue.
    Reluctantly his gaze was taken away from mine as we heard his name being shouted from back at the house. I followed his eye-line to a small figure making her way from the patio area and out onto the private beach. The light was fading fast, but even in the gloom I could make out the very curvaceous albeit surgically enhanced figure of Candy, another of Nathan’s fuck buddies. I had seen her in NYC when Frankie and I had first met Nathan, she wanted him and wasn’t happy when I replaced her, that was for certain. She was making her way towards us. I looked back to him and shook my head.
    ‘It’s not what you fucking think, Bella,’ he almost growled with anger. The tenseness of his body was palpable.
    ‘Oh no, of course it isn’t… why the hell would she be here… if it wasn’t what I thought, Nathan?’ My hands had found their way to my hips and my volume had increased significantly. ‘You want the truth from me… you won’t have lies, that’s what I heard you say… well that’s the pot calling the bloody kettle black, now isn’t it?’ I shook my head in disbelief. I made myself stand taller now, no way was she going to look down on me, no way in hell was I going to let her crow over me.
    ‘Nate, baby, there you are. I’ve brought back the clothes you left with me a couple of days ago and I couldn’t not come and see you after what we shared together, could I?’ I heard her unbelievably saccharine voice and cringed, not only at the sound she made but at the statement I had just witnessed.
    Give Nathan his due, his eyes never left mine to meet hers, even though it was fairly obvious she was trying everything in her résumé to get his undivided attention. I could see her out of the corner of my eye, twiddling her hair and staring at him longingly.
    ‘Go back to the house, Candy,’ he almost spat out. I watched his hands fisting at the sides of his body and I watched her as she looked between the two of us, staring each other out.
    ‘But…’ she managed.
    ‘No fucking buts… go the hell back to the house,’ his voiced raised in volume.
    ‘I’ll wait in your room, Nate… don't be long.’ I watched her flounce back towards the house.
    ‘This isn’t what it seems, darlin…You have to listen to me.’
    ‘STOP… I’m not interested… I’m no longer interested in anything that comes out of your bloody mouth… and don’t call me that, YOU no longer get to call me that.’ I stared at the man I thought I knew inside out,