QUOTE : Dammit, woman,” Kye cursed, rushing after me. “Slow down!”<br /><br />I whirled around then, slipping but catching myself. Please, let’s pile on the humiliation with busting my ass outside the lodge.<br /><br />“They think I don’t know I’m a mess?” I shouted, my voice shrill and filled with emotion I didn’t want to feel. “Well news flash: I know! I have to live with myself, it’s hard to miss!”<br /><br />And now snot was leaking out of my nose. Perfect! I swiped it with the back of my hand, grossed out and embarrassed. God, why couldn’t I get anything right?<br /><br />“Don’t look at me,” I cried when Kye was only a few steps away. “Why can’t I just be normal?”<br /><br />Kye’s eyes were crinkled at the edges and I saw pity there. It nearly killed me all over again. “Please don’t look at me that way.” I couldn’t deal with pity. <br /><br />“Holly?” Kye gently chucked his knuckles under my chin, lifting my gaze to his. “Fuck those people.”<br /><br />His poignant sentiment caught me off guard and I regrettably snorted, which was disgusting in my current state.<br /><br />“I mean it.” His fingers gave my chin a squeeze. And then he did the most startling, yet comforting, thing. He cupped my face, carefully brushing the cold tears off my cheeks with his thumbs while I stared up at him.<br /><br />I’d been mistaken. It wasn’t pity in his eyes. It was only kindness. Maybe even a little buried rage if his grimace was any clue.<br /><br />“They don’t deserve your time. They don’t even deserve the pleasure of your company.”<br /><br />I shook my head, sarcastically mumbling, “Because I’m such a gift.”<br /><br />“You’re damn right.” He smirked before his expression turned sincere. “You’re amazing Holly. This flawed, quirky, amazing woman.”<br /><br />Why did my heart speed up? His words replayed in my head. Again. And again.<br /><br />Flawed, quirky, amazing.<br /><br />He said those words with such earnestness, they burned into me. They stamped all over my heart what I already knew about Kye.<br /><br />What I forced myself to deny, to avoid at all costs, to pretend wasn’t real...<br /><br />I loved him.<br /><br />Against my better judgment and beyond all reason.<br /><br />I love you. I love you, my silent voice screamed inside my head.<br /><br />I was in love with Kye and I was doomed because I couldn’t free him. Didn’t know how and didn’t know if it was even possible.<br /><br />This relationship—real or fake—was on a ticking timer to its imminent demise and there was no emergency exit off this road to misery.