Page 8 of Taboo
The words made my stomach twist. “Maybe I do,” I admitted.
Bastian let out a rough breath and dragged a hand over his jaw before leaning back against the dock post. The movement pulled his T-shirt tight across his chest and warmth spread through me just watching him.
“Why do you always leave?” I asked softly.
He stayed quiet for so long that I thought he might not answer at all. Then he finally said, “Because staying too long usually ends badly for me.”
The way he said it made my heart race a little faster.
“You really believe that?”
“Yeah.” His laugh was short and bitter. “Men like me don’t settle down, Juliet.”
“Men like you?”
His gaze slowly turned to me, intense enough to make it hard to breathe. “The kind that ruins things.”
I shook my head. “You’ve never ruined anything.”
“That’s because you don’t know half the shit I’ve done.”
I shrugged. “I don’t care.”
His whole body stilled. Thunder rolled closer across the lake, but neither of us moved. Bastian looked at me in a way that sent my pulse racing. His eyes dropped to my mouth for a brief moment before dragging back up again. His expression was charged with everything we weren’t allowed to want.
I stopped breathing when he slowly lifted one rough hand toward my face. For one impossible second, I thought he was going to kiss me. My body leaned toward him on instinct.
Then something in his expression broke.
Bastian jerked his hand back like he’d almost made a terrible mistake and stood up abruptly.
“Bastian—”
“This is a bad idea,” he said, his voice strained.
Confusion and hurt twisted inside my chest. “What is?”
He looked down at me for one long, painful second, his jaw clenched tight. “Us,” he said quietly.
Then he turned and walked off the dock, leaving me sitting alone as the thunder grew louder.
6
BASTIAN
Istarted pulling away even more after that night on the dock.
I knew exactly where things were heading if I didn’t, and I couldn’t let it happen. So, I just stayed away, burying myself inside jobs that kept my hands busy and my mind occupied.
It was the only way I could think of to keep some distance between us. Every time I got close to Juliet, the pull got stronger, and I was terrified of what I might do if I let it win.
But the lake house had other plans.
That night, a real summer thunderstorm rolled in heavy and fast. The wind howled and shook the windows, and then a second later, the power went out in one big flicker, plunging everything into darkness.
Rain hammered the roof like it was trying to break through. I was sitting in my place next door with a single lantern and a cold beer when I heard the knock.
I opened the door, and there she was.
