Hurricane Hearts (Storm MC Reloaded 1)

Now.

He needs to know and then he can stop this before it goes any further.

Before his heart gets too broken again.

Can a heart get too broken? Isn’t broken, broken? Won’t finding out what I did break it completely so that it can’t get any more broken?

God, Birdie, focus.

I lifted my head and came eye to eye with Winter in the mirror again. “Max is here. He wants to talk, so we’re going to head out and find a café. You do your face and text me when you’re done.”

“Okay,” I said, my voice breaking as I gulped back all the thoughts I’d just had.

He frowned. “You okay?”

I nodded, forcing a smile. “Yeah, I’m good.” I moved to him and lifted up onto my toes so I could kiss him. “You go and sort stuff out.”

His hand landed on my ass as he kissed me again. When our kiss ended, he eyed me silently for a beat. “Love you, baby.”

My emotions crashed into me like a tidal wave. I loved this man with all my heart, and the thought of losing him again was unbearable. But so was the thought of hurting him again.

This was a no-win situation.

Both of us were going to drown in this.

The hurt and anger and pain were going to engulf us.

&

nbsp; The past was going to catch up with me and destroy him.

And although his father had just died, leaving him at his most vulnerable, I had to tell him.

I couldn’t allow him to go another second making more plans for us that would never come to pass.

I couldn’t allow his heart to be even more broken than it was already going to be.

I couldn’t allow him to tell me he loved me without knowing he shouldn’t.

As he removed his hand from my body, I reached for it and gripped it tightly. With my heart beating wildly, almost exploding out of my chest, I said, “We can’t do this, Winter.”

His frown returned. “Do what?”

“We can’t be together.” My voice was barely more than a whisper. But the anguish in it roared so loudly that it almost deafened both of us. “I lied to you while you were in Afghanistan. I did something I swore to you I’d never do, and all the things you think we can have, we can’t.” I let go of his hand and took a step away from him. Swallowing hard, I added on a broken whisper, “I can never make you a daddy. I’m so sorry.”

19

WINTER

There were four moments in my life that stood out to me. Moments that had signalled a big life change ahead. The day my mother died. The day I returned from Afghanistan that last time. The day Birdie left me. The day Dad died. This right here, this moment I was in with Birdie, screamed huge fucking life change. And I didn’t want one fucking thing to do with it. Not when we’d finally cleared what I thought was the last hurdle to be together again. I wasn’t deluded to think our journey would be easy, but I sure as fuck never expected something like this.

She was yet to tell me exactly what she’d done, but I didn’t need to know the details to know I wasn’t going to like it. I only had to take one look at Birdie to know that.

The way she looked like she was about to vomit.

The way she looked like she wanted to be anywhere but where she was.

The way she looked like regret was her own personal brand.