Chapter 333
Chapter 333
Chapter 189: A Badass Team
Roman
Before now, there were certain conversations I used to avoid with Savannah–topics I tiptoed around, things I buried deep because I knew how ugly they could get once they reached her ears. I’d imagine her reaction, imagine the explosion, imagine the storm gathering in her eyes… and I’d decide it was better to just hold it all in.
Savannah was many things, but predictable was not one of them. And angry Savannah? God help whoever summoned that version.
She had fire, teeth, claws. She could tear a man’s sanity apart with nothing but her voice and her rage. So I kept things from her. Out of fear. Out of exhaustion. Out of self–preservation.
But something’s changing. In her. In me. In us.
Lately I’ve found myself telling her things I would’ve swallowed in the past. And she listens–quietly, fully, present. I don’t know if I’ve
learned how to soften the blow and gently ease her into these topics… or if she’s finally learned how to keep her emotions contained
instead of detonating on impact.
Maybe it’s both.
Right now, she’s lying across my chest, drawing a thousand hearts on my skin with lazy fingers as I narrate everything Reese told me in the kitchen. Everything we discussed. Everything we uncovered about these disgusting cowards.
Well… almost everything. I left out the part about Lizzie joining us in this deadly adventure. No need to light a match before I’m ready
for the fire.
When I finish talking, the room goes quiet–the kind of quiet that stretches, that breathes, that waits. Her fingers pause on my chest for half a heartbeat before she slowly lifts her head.
“So you believe Kingston had something to do with… Dahlia p>
There it is. Her voice doesn’t shake, but her eyes do. Dahlia is the one thing Savannah will never be able to hide from. She can act unaffected about Kingston, she can pretend he’s nothing but dust on the floor of her past–but Dahlia? That name hits us both in the same place. The hollow place. The bruise.
Earlier, when she asked me questions, she kept watching my face, waiting for signs–hurt, discomfort, anything. But I didn’t give her any, because… I’m not affected by Dahlia anymore. Not the way I used to be. Not in the way that breaks a man. Not in the way that makes breathing feel like the worst betrayal.
She’s gone. She’s a memory. And if I keep letting her ghost choke me, then I’m not the man I think I am. And I’m not the man Savannah and our child deserves.
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9:25 Tue, Dec 23
Chapter 333
Yes, I loved Dahlia. Yes, I wanted a life with her. Yes, I wanted to provide for her and make her happy. Yes, I mourned her like a man
mourning his last chance at happiness.
But all of that changed the moment I met Savannah–this wild, chaotic, beautiful force of nature Goldberg warned me about. The girl who walked into my life like she was born to flip the entire damn place upside–down. I still remember it. She looked like trouble wrapped in sunshine. Pretty enough to make any sane man stupid. So of course I let her chew on my pen for longer than necessary–just to look at
her.
Then she opened her mouth. Jesus. I realized instantly that she was kind in a way people rarely are. Kind without trying. Rough around the edges but soft in the places that mattered. And she didn’t treat me like I was special or important. She didn’t see the status, the money or the name. She just saw… me. Roman.
Until she called me “bestie.” That was when things took a violent left turn. I’d never been friend–zoned so brutally in my entire life.
She said it like it was the most natural thing in the world. Like she didn’t just murder my ego in cold blood. But despite the insult to my manhood, she really became my best friend. The one person I looked forward to seeing everyday even though it meant listening to her talk about being with other men. The one person who treated me like I mattered.
And somewhere in the middle of all that, I fell for her so hard I didn’t even realize Dahlia’s shadow had vanished from my mind.
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2/2 Sara Lili Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.