Prologue - Ryan #2
Titters rang out, but I didn’t look away from Max. There was no way he was really pissed about his lack of invite. I hadn’t even told him I was engaged. What’d be the point? It wasn’t like we knew anything about each other’s lives now.
Mum was probably to thank for this. She was the only link that still existed between us.
The only one I’d acknowledge, anyway.
Max had reached out a few times over the years, most recently the day I’d met Kate. I’d never replied.
Not while he was still in Max’s life. I didn’t need confirmation that he was. Nothing would’ve changed in that regard.
“Well come on in,” I said, forcing my hand not to shake as I clapped the bloke next to me on the shoulder. “Gary, you don’t mind moving so Max and I can catch up?”
“We’ll need two seats,” Max said as he came up beside me. I glanced at him sharply and the wariness in his eyes had something in me slipping.
No. Nononono.
Max’s voice dropped low. “I tried to get him to stay away, but?—”
I grabbed the back of my chair as the whole room tilted sideways. “Max, tell me he isn’t here.”
To his credit, Max flinched. “Maybe it’s time you talked. I know he?—”
“No.” I cut him off again. There were too many curious eyes watching us. Too many witnesses to my undoing. I lowered my voice to a whisper as I pleaded with my twin. “Max, I swear to god. You can’t let him?—”
“Let me do what?” A voice echoed from behind me, encasing my lungs like cold silk. Threatening to suffocate me. “Since when do I let anyone tell me what to do?”
Dominic. He was here. He was really fucking here.
My worst nightmare was coming true.
I should’ve known the second I saw Max. Wherever my brother was, Dominic was never far behind.
I didn’t turn to face him. It took me a few seconds, but I managed to string together a sentence. “Daily, I’d assume, given you’re in the army.”
A forearm reached around me, thick muscle hidden under white cotton. Long fingers plucked the glass from my hand with ease. Fingers that covered pages of my old sketchbooks. The ones I hadn’t opened in over a decade. “Not anymore. Finished my last tour a week ago. Just in time, wouldn’t you say?”
A cold trickle ran through me. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”
Dominic’s answer was a dark chuckle. “So it’s going to be like that.”
Max shot me a guilty look before turning to his attention to the table. Within seconds, he had them all laughing as he displayed his easy charm. I’d had to work hard to learn something my twin had been born with.
At least this time he was using it for good—distracting everyone from the sight of my life imploding.
I felt Dominic at my back, his presence looming large despite the changes in my height and stature. I still didn’t look at him. Instead, I squared my shoulders and marched for the bar.
I gestured at the bartender for another drink. In my peripheral vision, I saw Dominic lean on the bar facing me. I wasn’t the only one whose physique had changed. He was taller than I remembered, broader too. I kept my gaze fixed forwards, refusing to give him the courtesy of acknowledging him.
The bartender delivered another glass of amber liquid. I drained half the glass in a swift gulp, relishing the burn.
“I didn’t know you drank whisky.”
The glass settled on the wood with a clink . “There’s a lot you don’t know about me now.”
“Evidently.” I knew his gaze was sweeping over me, and I fucking hated it. I hated that I could read him like a book. It gave me some comfort that he couldn’t say the same about me. “You’re like a whole new person.”
“I am.”
“And you’re going to be married, apparently.”
My nostrils flared as my fingers dug into the bar. “There’s no apparently about it, Dominic. I’m engaged. I’m getting married. I’m very happy.”
There was that chuckle again. The sound I’d loved more than anything, once. Before it had started appearing in my nightmares and chasing me from slumber. “If that’s the case, why can’t you even look at me?”
Fuck him. God, he was such an arsehole. Ten years and three tours hadn’t softened him—not that I’d expected them to.
I wasn’t letting him win though. Not again.
So I twisted, mimicking his position on the bar. I kept my gaze cool as it swept over him. Impassive. Unbothered.
Anything to hide that the sight of him after all this time was killing me.
That I was drinking him in like a man dying of thirst. Reminding myself of the exact shade of green in his eyes.
Of the slight angle in his nose where he broke it playing rugby when he was fifteen.
The dimple in his cheek that I’d once kissed.
Then there were the changes. The puckered scar on the right side of his neck that had caused me a sleepless night two years ago.
The black ink creeping out the neck of his white shirt.
The dark stubble covering his jaw, making him appear dangerous.
Ironic that his exterior now matched the interior.
Dominic Walker had always been dangerous.
At least where I was concerned.
He’d been bigger than me at eighteen, and even with the bulk I’d gained, that was still true.
Fuck. I wished it wasn’t. I wished I’d never fucking acknowledged him tonight. I should’ve walked out as soon as I heard his voice.
But it was too late for that now. The best I could hope for was getting through this in one piece and not letting Dominic have even the slightest inkling of how shaken I was by seeing him after all this time.
I turned my attention back to my drink, playing it like it was more interesting than anything he was presenting me with.
In truth, it was too painful to look at him for too long. Once, I’d believed he was my sunshine. The light in my life.
I’d been right. He was like the sun. A sun I’d flown too close to, only to be burned and sent crashing to earth.
“Why are you here, Dominic?”
“I would’ve thought that was obvious.”
The cold trickle from earlier was back, but it was now a torrent of ice. “Cut the bullshit and tell me.”
He shifted, taking a step closer to me. Not touching, but close enough for me to feel the heat of him.“I’m here to claim what’s mine, Ry. Just like I said I would.”
I closed my eyes. The audacity. The fucking audacity of this man. “You think you can just rock up in my life after a decade of silence and make demands of me? Fuck you, Dominic.”
“I’m not making demands.” His voice was mild. Unruffled. “I’m just telling you what’s going to happen.”
I faced him then as white-hot fury shot through me. Grabbing his collar, I hauled him close until our lips were nothing more than a breath apart. The move was a cruel mockery of what we’d once been. The times he’d done this to me, but not out of anger or hate.
At least, he claimed it wasn’t. Me? I wasn’t so sure. Even all these years later, I didn’t know the truth.
“Fuck. You,” I repeated, pushing my face as close to his as I dared. “The days of you telling me what to do or intimidating me are long fucking gone.”
Suddenly Max was beside us, his eyes darting uncertainly between us. “Um, guys? People are staring.”
I let go of Dominic with a bitter laugh. As always, he’d managed to make me forget everyone else in the room. I hated that almost as much as I hated him.
“Time to go,” I said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “You’re not welcome here, Dominic. Now fuck off before I throw you out.”
Fire smouldered in Dominic’s eyes, and I knew he was debating making me do just that. Of taunting me until I snapped, the way he used to.
But maybe Dominic had changed too, because instead he just smiled. “I’ll leave, Ry, but we both know this isn’t over.”
He went to walk past me but stopped as he drew level, his words a whisper in my ear, meant for me alone. “I haven’t forgotten my promise, and I know damn well you haven’t either, Ry. You walked away from me once, but I’m not letting it happen again.”
“I walked away, but you fucking ran .” I shoved him away from me. “Don’t give me any of that sanctimonious bullshit when we were both there. When we both know what happened.”
Something dark flickered through his eyes before he smoothed it away. He tilted his head mockingly. “Regardless, I meant what I said. I’ll be seeing you, Shadow.”
I didn’t react to that name. The cruel taunt that had become something more. I refused to let it penetrate the walls around my heart.
Dominic’s lip curled. He always did love a challenge.
Then he walked out of my stag do, my brother on his heels.
I’d been wrong. Nothing had changed.
Nervous chatter filled the room again. A few people tried to get my attention, but I ignored them. I wasn’t there.
I was in the past. A little over ten years ago. A kid on a rain-soaked street having his heart broken. Walking away with an ominous vow ringing in his ears.
“Walk away if you want, Shadow, but I’ll get you back. I don’t give a shit how many years pass, or who you give yourself to in the meantime. It means fuck all. You’re mine, and I’ll be back to claim you. Just you fucking wait and see.”
I should’ve known Dominic would follow through, if for no other reason than because he seemed to enjoy causing me pain.
It was all he’d ever done.