Free Unhinged by Pamela Ann Page A

wasn’t so sure anymore. I didn’t have an answer to give him, but what did it matter? It was apparent where I stood with him, so he shouldn’t even question me with any of this. It was then my phone decided to break the silence between us, flashing Damen’s name on it.
    “ He’s in your bed, dying to fuck you senseless.” His snide remark angered me.
    “ Well, at least someone does!” I replied. “So let me leave and get on with my life so he can fuck me senseless!”
    “ Then go! Before I fucking throttle you with my bare hands, you lying cunt!”
    I heatedly chucked my phone at him, but his reflexes were too quick not to catch it. Too much adrenaline was running through my veins, and I knew I had to get out of there before we literally killed each other. Besides, the things that were coming out of our mouths were truly hurtful, and I couldn’t bear another second of it.
    “ Give me my phone, please.”
    “ No.” He then had the audacity to place it in his pocket before giving me a straight look. “You agreed to stay with me tonight, and you will do just that. I’ll take you home first thing in the morning.”
    What. The. Fuck.
    “ You just called me a lying cunt, and you expect me to stay here with you, in your bed, sleeping next to you as if you didn’t fucking insult me? Are you fucking mad?”
    “ I am…” He suddenly looked defeated, as if all the fight had left him, and all that was left in him was sadness. “I can’t stand the thought of you with another man. I fucking can’t.”
    “ But you don’t want me…” I stared at him in disbelief. “You said you don’t want me.”
    “ I can’t… I can’t be with you, Isobel.” He made the saddest of smiles I had ever seen a man make, breaking my heart into pieces all over again. “Even if I wanted to, I can’t be with you the way you want me to. It’s just not possible.”
    “ I don’t understand…”
    “ My past…” he started saying. “There are some things in my past that will never allow me to care deeply for someone. I could love you. I would if I could.”
    He wasn’t making any sense at all. “What do you mean by that?”
    “ I have to set you free. Even if it isn’t easy for me, I need to let you go.”
    Something cold wrapped about my heart. There was something chilling in the way he said it, like I was safer to be away from him.
    “ What’s in your past, Hugo? What’s so awful that you’re willing to sacrifice our happiness for it?”

Chapter 13
    Isobel
     
    “ It’s wise to leave it be and never ask about it, Isobel.” Hugo’s words barely registered as I remembered a similar odd warning.
    He’s enigmatic and an excellent lover. He will shower you with everything and will say beautiful words that will make you feel hopeless, but I warn you, never fall for him. You don’t want that kind of life.
    Chantel’s words rang loudly in my ears as I recalled that conversation we’d had before we went to the spa. What kind of life did she mean? I knew she wasn’t referring to Hugo and his girlfriends. What did Chantel know about Hugo’s past?
    “ Leave it be?” It was an impossible task. How could he say those things and then expect me to simply shove it in some back corner of my brain? “I know what you were trying to say, Hugo, but is there any other way that it could work? You might not be ready to tell me what it is, but please tell me there’s some way around it?”
    “ No. It’s nothing like that,” he said in an eerie manner. “It’s a gamble I don’t ever want to chance…”
    Pausing, I stared at him with utter hopelessness. I knew everything in life technically was a gamble; one way or another, it was. However, sometimes it was worth it to fight for something that you believed in, and in the most maddening way, I still wanted to keep on fighting for him, for me.
    “ So, let me get this straight; you’re fine being engaged in multiple relationships with women under the same roof, but you