Treacherous by L.L Hunter Page B

out of
her face. She held her breath. “I’ve been an idiot. A complete and
utter fool for not calling you this week, and I regret it. However,
I don’t regret you and I don’t regret what happened between us. The
truth is, I do care about you, Charli. I… I love you.”
    Charli
     
    I couldn’t believe
the nerve of him. Coming back, unexpectedly, after not calling me,
after no contact at all, leaving me to think he didn’t care. And
now this. This confession… what was he doing to me? I couldn’t
breathe. Had he really just said what I thought he just
said?
    “ Nathan…”
    He took my face in
his hands and kissed me. I really was playing with fire, and I was
the one getting burned. Right now, in this moment, I came to the
realisation I was not invincible. I was a mere mortal with a
conscience and a heart—a fragile heart that had been fractured into
a million different pieces in a very short time.
    Unfortunately, I had
to do the same thing to him. He had to become just as broken as I
was. It was only fair. I pushed Nathan away and stepped out of his
embrace.
    “ Charli? I’m sorry,
please. I’m sorry.”
    “ No, Nathan. It’s too
late.” I hadn’t realised I was crying until I felt a tear run into
my mouth making my lips salty. I wiped them away.
    “ No, its not,” he
whispered. A text came through on my phone. I glanced at it quickly
then slid my phone back into my pocket. “I have to go.”
    “ Please, Charli.
Stay.” Oh, crap, now I had made him cry, too. I wanted to wipe away
his tears just as badly as I was sure he wanted to wipe away mine,
but I couldn’t. The damage was done.
    “ Nathan. I’m sorry. I
have to go.”
    “ No, you can’t go. Not
with him.”
    That stalled me. I
stopped in the process of picking up my bag, my back still turned,
so I turned to look at him.
    “ What?”
    “ You can’t go with
him. He’s dangerous.”
    “ How do you know? What
are you talking about?”
    He stepped closer and
pulled me to him once more. This time, his hold was possessive as
if he knew his time with me was precious and rare.
    “ Charli,” he breathed
into my hair. He smelled of aftershave, sweat, and something else
that I couldn’t place. “There’s so much I have to tell you. I want
to tell you more than anything. But now you’re going to have to
trust me when I say please don’t go with him.”
    “ Nathan. As I said,
it’s too late. He’s here.” I pulled out of his arms and grabbed my
bag. I didn’t turn back to look at his face as I walked out the
door. I knew I’d stay if I did.
    “ Charli!” I listened
to him calling after me as I left him behind.
     
    * * * *
     
    Tears streamed down
my face as I hurried from the dorm and to Frankie’s waiting
car.
    “ Are you okay? What’s
wrong?” He pulled me into his arms when he saw me and kissed my
head.
    “ Yeah. I will be soon.
Can we just go?”
    “ Sure.” He kissed me
before taking my bag off my shoulder and placing in into the boot
before heading round to the driver’s side. I spared one last glance
at my window before hopping into Frankie’s car hoping to see
Nathan’s figure there. But the window was as dark and as empty as
my heart.
     

Chapter
Twenty-Four
     
    Charli
     
    As Frankie’s car sped
out of the city, I turned to look at him. His five-o’clock shadow
and dark aviator sunglasses made him look especially handsome. My
stomach somersaulted inside of me. My heart would have joined in,
but it was far too broken, and I was uncertain that Frankie could
find all the pieces before it was too late. This was my punishment.
He caught me looking and smirked.
    “ Are you sure you’re
okay?”
    “ Yes. Is this a new
car?”
    “ Yeah. I just picked
it up this morning. Like it?”
    “ Yeah. It’s nice. And
expensive looking.” I didn’t know how Frankie made his money but I
felt it was time to ask. After all, we would be getting closer the
next few days. “You must have a good job.”
    “ Yeah. I’m pretty