Page 51 of Radiant Exception
“They would have been best friends, or one would have killed the other within the first five minutes of meeting,” I choked out through a laugh.
Cassidy’s smile was tight in reply, and a pregnant pause enveloped the small office. The air between us became tense and awkward.
“It could have been us, L.” Cassidy’s voice was sad and gentle. “The timing was always off.”
I gave him a half smile, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
He leaned forward, placing his palm on my thigh. “It’s still off, but it doesn’t have to be.”
My head swam as I tried to catch up with the gravity of what he was suggesting.
“I’ve always wanted you,” he confessed. “You’ve always been the one who got away. You thought I forgot about you, but there hasn’t been a day since I left for college that I didn’t think of you. I spent years trying to become the man I thought would be worthy of you. I’d do anything to make you mine.”
I looked down at his hand and back up at his eyes. “Cassidy…I have an exception.” I tried to hide how taken aback I was by his insinuation. I wasn’t a philanderer, and neither was he. I couldn’t even process the rest of his admission. I was too dumbfounded to even try.
“You could dissolve it,” he suggested, his tone pleading.
My lips parted in shock, and before I could register what was happening, Cassidy closed the distance between us to kiss me.
His lips were soft, and I blame the suddenness of his actions for not pulling away sooner. He mistook my lack of a response for acceptance, but when his tongue invaded my mouth, it tore me from my stupor, and I finally reared back.
A throat cleared in the doorway, and I looked up, dread curling in my stomach, to find Vaughn staring down at us, his face a blank mask that I knew was only disguising his fury and disgust at what he’d witnessed.
“You weren’t answering your comm. We’re approaching Vesta. Report to your stations,” He commanded stoically.
“Vaughn, wait!” I scrambled off the couch, shoving into the hallway and grabbing his arm to stop him in his tracks.
This could NOT be happening.
“I swear that wasn’t what it looked like,” I pleaded.
“Report to your station, Officer Sterling.” The mask slipped. His tone and gaze were so scathing it sent shivers down my spine.
“Vaughn—”
“That’s an order,” he barked, yanking his arm from my grasp before storming back down the hallway.
I watched his large, muscular form retreating as I sank to the floor, somehow knowing that there would be no coming back from this.
Cassidy’s head poked out into the hallway, looking to see if it was safe for him to leave.
“Fuck, I’m sorry L.” He grimaced when he saw me huddled on the floor. He reached a hand out to help me up.
“Just leave me alone.” My voice trembled with the devastation I was feeling inside as I refused his assistance.
Cassidy’s shoulders slumped, and for a moment it looked like he wanted to say something, but when my eyes snapped up to him in challenge, he admitted defeat and sauntered down the hall in the opposite direction from Vaughn.
Leaving me to pick up the pieces alone.
Head between my knees, I focused on taking deep breaths.
Things had gone to shit so quickly, but I was a survivor, and I had to remember what Xavier used to tell me in times of turmoil: “This, too, shall pass.”
I had spent my entire adolescence crushing on Cassidy. But he was always out of reach, and too great of a risk to try anything, considering his deep connection to my family, and his friendship with my brother.
But when I’d finally gotten the kiss I’d dreamed about for so many nights of my youth, it was all wrong. There was no spark. The desire was long gone. And instead I found myself thinking of another man while Cassidy’s lips were on mine: Vaughn.
Because when Vaughn and I were tangled up in one another, the rest of the world didn’t exist. There wasn’t just a spark between us, it was explosive. And I’d let it slip through my fingers by standing in my own way.
