Pulled by Amy Lichtenhan Page A

you’l find...” Nicholas’s voice was a distant sound in my head, everything other than Daniel was a haze around me. I stil had never seen a more beautiful man, but he was so different from the carefree boy I once knew. His hair was in utter disarray; the color had darkened with age, but stil had natural light streaks. I longed to run my fingers through it the way I used to. His body was stil firm, muscles toned and smooth, now maybe even thinner than he had been before.
    But it was his eyes that broke my heart al over again. No longer did they glimmer with the joy that used to radiate from them. Instead, the intensity was gone, the life sucked from them. There had been a faint flicker of it as they first met mine, passing in the same instant.
    The sadness surrounding his presence was
    sickening, like a disease had taken over his body, and he had given up his wil to live. His cheeks were sunken, and there were dark bags under his eyes.
    I had never wanted to comfort anyone more. I wanted to cal his name, to touch his face, to taste his lips. I wanted to assure him that my love for him was unending. I wanted to promise we could heal together. I wanted to forgive him, to forget about the past, to move on. There was one simple fact that held me back.
    He didn’t want me anymore.
    But seeing him now—my spirit couldn’t believe that. I could feel he loved me. But sometimes love just wasn’t enough. He needed more than I could give.
    I looked at his wife or girlfriend, I wasn’t sure which, and jealously surged through my whole being.
    Had he pledged his life to her, to love her forever?
    Did he go to bed with her every night and pul her body against his, holding her the way he used to hold me? Did they have children waiting at home?
    Sweat broke out across my forehead, and I swal owed back the bile that had risen in my throat.
    If he had al these things, why was he so broken?
    He had the same look on his face that I had every day when I looked in the mirror. He was nothing more than a shel of a person.
    Daniel seemed to be struggling to listen to what Nicholas was saying. His gaze would travel to me and then snap back to Nicholas as if he was in a constant war with himself. I could almost feel his body drifting in my direction even though it stayed in place.
    Nicholas kept looking at me and then back at Daniel, suspicion thick on his brow. While he had no idea who Daniel was, it was clear there was something going on.
    “So, Daniel,” Nicholas handed him another sheet of paper. “If you take a look at this, you’l see that we have the building permit outlined here. We should be able to get it through the city in four to six weeks.” Nicholas pointed something out on the paper, but Daniel did little more than glance at it before his eyes came back to me.
    Nicholas tensed, his possessive nature getting the best of him, and he reached his hand out to stroke my face. I cringed away. He ran his hand down my face to rest on the side of my neck, his fingers digging into my skin. He leaned into my face as if he was going to kiss my cheek.
    Instead, he whispered, “Bitch,” low enough that only I could hear.
    Daniel’s hands resting on the table tightened into fists, his face burned, and his eyes, dead only moments ago, now fil ed with pure hate.
    Rarely had I seen that expression on his face, but I knew it—Daniel was absolutely dripping with rage. He looked as if he was going to rip Nicholas’s arm off. I could see he was restraining himself in his seat, holding himself back, his fury threatening to explode.
    I just didn’t understand it. He didn’t want me! How could he sit there and be angry that I was with somebody else when he had let me go? I wanted to scream at him, to beg him for an answer. Why? Why did he do this to me?
    Love and hate warred within me, tearing my soul apart.
    Daniel’s date sat silent, fidgeting with her napkin, leaning in further and further toward him. He ignored her.
    She sighed every few