Nunew accidentally crashes CEO Zee Pruk Panich's car when working as a valet. He expects Zee to make him pay back the cost of damages but the young businessman has another arrangement in mind.
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Nunew didn't respond but the look on his face was all the confirmation I needed. He knew. For how long, I wasn't sure. Maybe he'd overhead Janis that morning after I'd said we were lovers. Maybe he just knew. Was it obvious, the way she had shown up my penthouse just after the sun had risen, insistent she be let in? It didn't matter how he found out. Only that he did somehow.
He knew and he ran away. And that scared me.
I watched his chestnut eyes shift, flickering through a range of emotions. Sadness. Anger. Confusion. I hated that these seemed to be the only feelings I could bring out of him. The only ones my presence elicited.
My teeth worked against each other, the muscles in my jaw tightening before I finally asked, "That's why you came here, isn't it?"
Again, he stayed silent. I took a step towards him, desperate to be close. To feel him as I had just last night, body pressed against mine, breath on my skin, shaking under my touch. He tensed, lower lip catching in his teeth as he watched me apprehensively. The storm of emotions raged across his features, each fighting to take over. Every one adding to the sinking weight in the pit of my chest.
"How could you lie to me?" His voice was tight.
I tried not to react. To keep myself calm. To not grab him by the waist, pull him to me, bury my face in his hair. I wanted fresh rain. Drenched flowers. The scent of him. The scent that felt like home.
"I never lied."
His lips twisted into a harsh frown, brow falling as he glared. His fingers curled into fists at his sides as he shot back, "You did. You were engaged to someone else the entire time. How is that not lying?"
"I didn't lie." My voice was steady even with my ribcage vibrating from the pounding of my heart. Was I ready to have this conversation? Would he understand?
I took another step closer and Nunew shuffled back, his body jerking as if he'd been shocked. My throat constricted, my fingers twitching as I held them at my sides. I wanted to comfort him. To help him forget this bullshit. To bring him back to what we knew. Who we had been, under the layers of guilt and deceit.
Instead, I tried another tactic. An explanation that I hoped he would accept. Truth, if only a little vague. "I told you from the start that I couldn't commit to you."
His lip was between his teeth again, working the flesh until it was raw. I wanted to grab his face. Suck his goddamn lip into my mouth. Nibble it for him. My throat clenched as I swallowed.
He shot back, "You never said it was because of someone else."
I hated throwing his words back in his face. But I needed him to see the situation for what it was. To understand why I had done things the way I had. To maybe accept that I had done my best. That even though I had known it was wrong, I'd done it because he deserved more.
