Dancing Barefoot by Amber Lea Easton Read Free Book Online Page B

breath.
    “Still mutter ing and pacing,” she whispered. “I swore that when I saw you again I’d be cool and sophisticated, that I’d have all the right words.”
    “Yo u planned on seeing me again?” He stared at the painting hanging on the wall, his body rigid.
    “Hoped.” She dragged her gaze to his face. “I need to explain why I left.”
    “ Is there really an excuse for leaving your fiancé without even a goodbye or a fuck you?” He frowned again, his eyes full of confusion when he met her gaze.
    “ Probably not a good enough one,” she whispered.
    “H ow come you never looked back? Not once did you look back.” He closed the space between them with two slow steps. “You left me like I meant nothing to you.  When I got home, you had disappeared. Vanished. Now there's all of this...a painting of our place here, pictures of Florence in your living room, you're wearing my ring...but you never looked back, you never contacted me."
    “I had responsibilities, no choices.” Regret rolled through her. 
    “You had a choice.”
    “No, I didn’t.” All of the reasons that had seemed important felt insignificant now. "I went back," she admitted without looking at him. "But you were gone. I'd waited too long, other people were in the apartment, all of my things were gone, Luca didn't have any answers. You were no where to be found."
    "What do you mean you went back? When?"
    "About a month later...you were gone."
    "A month? That's impossible. You're lying." He stalked toward her until her back collided with her easel. His hands gripped the top of the canvas, arms pinned her where she stood. “I haven’t wanted to remember you in a very long time.”
    “I suppose not.”
    “But I have.”
    “Me, too.” 
    “Are you happy?”
    “What do you mean?” She folded her arms across her chest. 
    “Did you make the right choice? Leaving me? Leaving our life together? Tell me you’re happy and I’ll walk out of your life forever.”
    “What does it matter? I can’t undo it.”
    "But you tried to undo it, if you're telling me the truth. You went back."
    "It doesn't matter anymore. You said it yourself. We're successful people, our lives moved on for the better." She wished she hadn't admitted going back to Italy looking for him. It made her sound pitiful and weak.
    “So you have no regrets, is that what you're saying?”
    “Of course I have regrets, but so what? What good does that do us?”
    “That’s why I came here tonight, to see…”
    “See what? I’v e done what I said I would do. "Pride forced her head high. “I’m up for associate partner at my firm. I’m a good—no, great—architect.”
    “You’re lying. You’re not happy.” His hand framed the side of her face, forcing her to look at him. “I see it in your face. It’s like you’ve died. You're living in the past, which tells me you're not that thrilled with the present.”
    “When did you get so mean?” Too tired to fight, tears blurred her eyes. “Get out. Enough insults for one day. Just go.”
    “Why a re you still wearing my ring?” His voice was low and powerful in the small room.
    “Why do you?”
    “My ring.” Dark blond hair covered his left eye when he bent forward, only a breath away from her face. “Why are you wearing it? Does it mean anything to you or do you simply think it’s pretty?”
    “Please go.” She flattened her hands against his chest, but wished she hadn’t.  The feel of his hard body beneath her hands liquefied her bones. 
    He slammed his hand against the canvas, knocking it to the floor behind her.  “You just left. One day we’re living together, talking about creating a future, and then you disappeared.”
    Her lungs def lated like air from a balloon. Breathing ceased. "I needed to come back here to—”
    “To be safe? To do the right thing?” He had her backed against the easel. “You vanished.”
    “You had my address. I didn’t disappear.” 
    “You let me go without a