Page 67 of Modern Romance January 2025 5-8
Before his mother’s arrival she would’ve put a different slant on that tone, fooled herself into believing hedreadedwhat her packing meant. She knew better.
‘What does it look like? I’m leaving. That’s what you want, isn’t it?’
‘Is it? That’s curiously astute of you, considering I don’t know what I’m feeling myself.’
Harsh laughter seared her throat. ‘Well, that’s just the problem, isn’t it? You’re happy to drift from wherever the wind takes you while pretending you’re in control of your destination.’
He inhaled sharply. ‘Excuse me?’
‘You’re not excused. Face your fears or throw down your sword, Jario. You can’t have it both ways. You’re still trapped in that cave but the only one keeping you there this time is you!’
Angry colour tinted his cheekbones as his eyes narrowed. ‘I know you delight in pushing my buttons but even you can see you’re seriously overstepping.’
True. But this was much more important. ‘Am I? Why did you ignore your mother’s emails? Because I wasnothing for you to worry about?’
His nostrils flared and silence bubbled between them before he responded. ‘Whether I do or not doesn’t matter.’
The lacerations on her heart grew wider. Deeper. ‘That’s crap and we both know that.’
‘Willow—’
‘Here we go. You’re about to issue some form of threat? A warning to watch my tongue? At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we’ve been there, done that. We both knew this was going to end one way or another.’
He sneered. ‘With you running back to your father?’
Her heart twisted harder. ‘Actually, no. If you want to know, being here with you has given me the clarity I need. I’m done with lies and indifference and accepting half-hearted crumbs of imitation love. I want the whole feast or nothing at all.’
His silence weighed heavy and as it lengthened, her despair grew. And grew.
Her fingers clenched around the flip-flops she’d just picked up. ‘There’s no need to watch me pack. I’ll be out of your hair in ten minutes.’
He exhaled heavily.
Cursing against the infernal compulsion, she glanced his way. He looked fierce, predictably, but also...shaken. Determined but bewildered.
This is really happening.
She’d fallen in love with this man somewhere between dropping to her knees to scrub his pristine deck and listening to his mournful voice as he narrated what had happened to break up his happy family.
Her heart had urged her to find him over and over on the nights when his demons had tormented him, to offer solace because it already knew it belonged to him.
That heart shrivelled now when unshakeable resolution settled onto his face. Unbending like the mountains soaring into the sky behind them. She knew as well as she knew her name that his resolve rested at the opposite end of what her heart yearned for.
Her heart may have chosen him, but Jario Tagarro was about to choose a path that didn’t include her.
‘Travel will be arranged for you. This thing was always on an extended pause.’
Her heart shrivelled even more and dropped to her toes. ‘Thisthing? Tell me something. How do you feel about that?’
A tic throbbed at his temple. ‘Excuse me?’
‘You’ve been doing what you think your father wants. What you believe will make your mother happy. But what do you want, Jario? These last two weeks... I thought...’ She shook her head. ‘Why does one have to suffer for the other to be fulfilled?’
His expression wavered, rippling like a disturbed pond. Then it settled back to chilling stillness. ‘Do you know what you’re asking?’
The strings around her heart pulled with vicious yanks, until she feared they would be ripped to unsalvageable shreds. ‘You want me. But more than that, you need me.’ Her boldest declaration yet. The roaring echo in her ears said so.
The shocked flare of his eyes evidenced it further. But the power of his immutable will crushed it, as she’d feared he would. ‘You put too high a premium on yourself,pequeña. You’re hard to resist, I accept, but you’re not entirely irresistible.’ His lips twisted as his eyes turned flinty. ‘Luckily, I’m used to doing hard things. Sometimes even the impossible.’