Page 84 of Forbidden Eyes
“I can tell you’re looking at me, Fia.” Despite his low, sexy voice, his awareness startles me.
“Sorry.” I dart back to facing Uncle Quinn, feeling rather like I got caught staring at something I shouldn’t.
Namely, the hot guy.
Uncle Quinn doesn't help my plight, either. The corners of his mouth creep up,even if his face is concentrating on something he's reading on the laptop.
The rest of the flight I lose myself inside my own head, a dangerous place to be given the present circumstances. I think about everything back in New York. My friends, my school, and what I’d hoped to be my career. Everything has been flipped and turned around. I don’t even think I can go back home after everything that’s happened. Or maybe I’ll need to? Can I really cut myself off from everyone I’ve known just like that, and assume that Uncle Quinn will let me stay with him?
My brain protests at the myriad of possible paths and options open to me, because without all of the facts or answers, without a conversation with the man sitting behind me about reality, I’m tying myself up in knots.
Quinn has a smirk on his face the entire way to his house. Carter and I sit at opposite ends of the back seat, as if we’re magnets repelling one another, and all the way my frustrations grow, burning hotter inside my chest and desperate to vent.
Much like the plane, Carter leaves the car without acknowledging me. As soon as we arrive at the house he heads off in the direction of his own place before I've even made it out of the car.
“Carter!” I shout, unable to contain my exasperation for a minute more.
He ignores my call and continues to stomp off.
“What are you waiting for?” Quinn offers, propped up on the side of the car with his arms crossed.
“Sorry?”
“Simple question. Do you want to go after him?” He raises his brow as if challenging me, and right now that’s the last thing I need.
“Yes. I do.”
He nods, telling me what I need to do. I spin and storm after Carter.
The door swings wide as he enters his house, nearly smashing the wall as he goes.
“Fia, I’m not in the mood right now,” he calls back to me, nothing but irritation in his voice. He’s already in the kitchen when I creep in and find him, pulling open a cupboard and grabbing a soda from his fridge. “What do you want?”
“I thought we could talk.”
“Talk,” he repeats, nodding his head and looking at me like he might explode into the violence I saw from my father. He’s always been so calm and in control. Even when he was killing people there was still a sense of control about him. A coolness. And when he was taking the beating, he must have been so close to letting go, but he didn’t. He was in control. But right now, all I want is a reaction that tells me he’s feeling something—anything—for me. Even anger would be better than silence.
“I don’t think talking is a good idea. You should go back up to the house. Your mother will be here soon.” His dismissal stings, but then I should be getting used to that now.
“It was you who wanted to talk in the hospital. Now, when I want to, you’d rather I just leave? I can’t leave, Carter. I’m here because my family is ripped in two. All because of me.”
He turns to look away,choosing the window rather than me. “We’ve been through this, Fia.”
“You telling me that it’s your fault doesn’t remove the guilt that I feel. I’m an adult in this as well. Don’t treat me like a child.”
“I’ve never fucking treated you like a child," he murmurs. "Believe me, I wish I could have done.”
“You’d rather nothing happened between us then? Good to know, Carter.”
He swings to face me so quick I falter back a step, the flash of the same scowl I saw in hospital scaring me slightly.
“That is not what I fucking meant, and you know it. Stop aggravating the situation.”
This was a mistake. How am I meant to fight for Carter when he doesn’t want me? When he thinks nothing more of me than a situation to deal with? I turn to leave, head low and a million emotions rushing through me.
“Fia, stop.” His hand on my shoulder halts my retreat, but the tears have all but fallen down my cheeks. “God, woman. Can’t you see how fucking mixed up this is? How dangerous this is for everyone?”
“Funnily enough, yes.” I meet his eyes and search them for that flicker of desire that I’m desperate to see again. All of this happened because of me. Because of Carter. And standing under his gaze, I fear I’d do it all again, regardless of the problems we've caused.