My lips part, but he presses his finger against my mouth, stopping me from speaking. “Who did this to you?”
Panic sweeps through me once again. It’s too dangerous to tell a man like him.
“I … I …”
His eyes rage with a fire I’ve never seen before. “It was him, wasn’t it?” He blinks and lets go of my wrist, and for some reason, I suddenly feel cold. “It will end.”
Before I can reply, he swirls around and walks off, leaving me breathless and completely untethered from this world.
Chapter 4
Amelia
After he left the club, I didn’t want to go home and face Chris, so I asked my coworker Jamie if I could stay with her for the night. It was easier to run than to pretend everything was okay. Of course, Jamie asked about it, but I didn’t feel like airing all my personal problems, let alone the fact that Chris was cheating on me. No, I shoved that into a corner of my mind and promised myself I wouldn’t look at it again until I was ready, and she respected that.
Now I’m at work, slurping coffee like there’s no tomorrow just to stay awake.
Jamie picks up a whole bunch of books and shoves them into my arms. “Can you help me sort this stack?”
It’s so damn heavy my knees almost buckle.
“Uh, sure,” I reply, trying to keep them from tumbling down onto the floor.
Still, one of them falls, and I try to bend over to pick it up, but then the rest of the stack almost falls too, so I stop just in time.
“Oh, stop!” Jamie says, pushing some books back onto the stack. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it.” She bends over and picks up the book from the floor, only to pause near my legs.
“Hey …” she murmurs, pointing at my knee. “You’ve got a nasty bruise there.”
My eyes widen, and I quickly hide my leg behind the other one. “Oh, it’s nothing. I just … fell down the stairs yesterday,” I say, laughing it off. “It’s fine.”
She frowns at me as she puts the book on top of the stack in my arms. “You sure do fall a lot, don’t you?”
“I bruise easily.” I shrug, winking because we’re both thinking of that same song now.
“Ha-ha …” She rolls her eyes. “I swear to God, Amelia, you’re like a textbook bookworm, complete with the whole clumsiness.”
“I know. That’s why this job is so perfect for me,” I reply.
“Exactly, so go, go, go!” She nudges me forward, so I take the hint and walk off before she asks any more questions that I don’t want to answer.
I carry the books to the bookcase with an empty shelf that needs to be filled. I put most of them down on a table behind me so I can arrange them in the right order.
Right then, my phone buzzes, and I almost jolt from the scare. I fish it out of my pocket and see it’s my own calendar reminding me it’s my birthday. And I didn’t get a present or any kind of happy birthday wish.
I sigh and think about Chris, wondering if he’s with that woman or if he’s making up ways to fix our broken relationship. Maybe he has something planned tonight. A big apology and a candlelight dinner while he grovels for forgiveness, along with a big gift for my birthday. Or maybe … nothing at all.
Maybe I prefer nothing.
Maybe nothing is better for me in the long run.
I tuck my phone back into my pocket and tell myself I’m going to celebrate it tonight, regardless if he’s there or not. I don’t care anymore. It’s my birthday, and I’m gonna celebrate it just like I deserve, even if I have to do it all by myself.
I grab a few books off the table and turn around to place them on the shelf. I push one of them a bit too far ahead, and it tumbles off on the other side of the bookcase.
That’s when a familiar set of eyes appears from behind the case. Two emerald green eyes hidden between the books, looking straight at me.
My eyes widen in shock as I cover my mouth with my hand to prevent the squeal from spilling out.
“Shh … Don’t make a sound. It’s a library, after all.”
It’s the same dark, dangerous voice from the night before. The same guy is now standing before me mere inches away, separated only by a few books and an empty shelf.
A cold shiver turns my veins into ice.
He stares at me with that same ungodly, obsessive look.
A definite smirk forms on his lips. “Amelia …”
The way he speaks my name makes all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
“Have you ever had a wish?”
“A wish?” I repeat, too shocked that this is truly happening to form a cohesive answer.
“A wish that would become reality?”
I frown, baffled by his mere presence, let alone his questions.
“Amelia?” my coworker calls, and her voice distracts me enough that it makes me turn my head. Just one second. One second. That’s all it took for him to pick up the book I dropped and shove it back into the empty space, covering the few inches we had to exchange looks.
I take a few steps back, expecting him to come bursting through the case with guns blazing to take me away, but nothing happens. I just stand there in blissful ignorance, wishing that it had.
Because secretly, a part deep down inside me wants to answer his question.
Wants him to show me what it could be like to live that dream.
No.
His questions were silly. The ramblings of a stranger.
A stranger who followed you to both your jobs.
Which means he knows where you live.
Shit.
Panic rushes through my veins as I throw the books onto the table and walk to the other end of the bookcase to peek along the side. But the man is already long gone. Vanished. As though he never existed to begin with and was just a figment of my imagination.
But I know for a fact that I have not gone insane.
“Amelia? Are you done? I have more.” Jamie suddenly appears on the other end with a stack of books in her hands and gazes at me as though I’ve lost my mind. “What are you doing?” she asks.
“Oh ... um …” I look around to make sure the man is really gone. Only one way to find out if I am going insane. “Did you see a man walk by here? By any chance?”
She frowns. “Maybe? I mean, there’re a lot of them. Daily.” She snorts.
“I mean just now. Did someone walk away from here?” I point at the bookcase. “Like he was standing right here.”
She makes a face. “Um, I don’t know? I don’t keep track. Why?”
“It’s nothing.” I sigh and look away.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
“Yeah, yeah.” I shrug it off and smile a bit, but it’s a fake smile. “Sorry, I’m just a little shook, that’s all.”
“From a guy?” she asks as she sets the stack of books on a nearby table. “Should I call someone? The cops?”
“No, it’s fine,” I say, wafting it away. “It was nothing.” I snort to try to make light of it, but it still doesn’t sit right with me.
“All right then, if you’re sure,” she replies, rolling her eyes a little. Not much, but enough for me to notice.