Ravenous (Steel Brothers Saga 11)

If only I’d never initiated that first kiss.

But there’d been no stopping the kiss. There’d been no stopping the energy that sizzled between us.

Which was why—

Fuck.

Marjorie.

She was walking toward the guesthouse.

I went inside quickly, still watching her from the window of the French doors. When she was about a hundred yards away, she turned abruptly and headed back toward the main house.

Maybe she’d just been out on a stroll.

Or maybe she’d been coming to me and then changed her mind.

I thought again of the cruel words I’d written to her after our last night together. I didn’t mean any of them, but I was determined to keep her away from me.

I was poison.

I couldn’t infect her.

I was nothing but emptiness, and though she filled me beyond my wildest dreams, I was still nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Talon had invited the three of us to dinner this evening to celebrate our move into the guesthouse, but I’d turned him down. I had to keep this business. Solely business. Eating dinner with Marjorie Steel would be too difficult. Too heart-wrenching.

She loved me. And God, if she truly loved me, my words had cut into her as much as writing them had cut into me.

I was a fucking piece of shit.

I thought about getting a drink, but alcohol wouldn’t help me. Nothing would. Nothing ever would.

When you were nothing, the only constant in your life was…nothing.

Chapter Six

Marjorie

I hadn’t meant to walk to the guesthouse. I’d been outside with Donny and the pups, and my feet just started moving. Bryce had seen me and gone quickly inside, so I’d turned around.

He didn’t want to see me.

He’d meant the words he’d so callously written.

But it didn’t make sense. Our lovemaking could not have been one-sided. It just couldn’t have been.

Give him space.

Mel’s words echoed inside my head.

Walking to his home wasn’t giving him space.