Free Needing Him by Michelle Dare Page A

were better off with Kai.  He’s more on your level.  He understands the life you lead better than I do.”
    “You said that when you broke things off with me.  I can’t believe you’d think I would cheat on you.”
    “And I can’t help the way I felt in that moment.  I went to your house with a plan I needed to enact to protect you.  What I didn’t expect was to see two members of the hottest rock band alive answering your door.”
    “Radek, you approached the entire situation all wrong as far as I’m concerned.  You and I could have figured something out that wouldn’t have entailed my heart being run over by your truck when you left that day.”
    He shook his head.  “I saw how hurt you were at the thought of your secret getting out.  No, I was going to do whatever it took to protect you.  You didn’t like it, well neither did I, any of it.  From the minute you told me Erin called until now has been one gigantic clusterfuck.  All I cared about was you through it all.  Only you.  I never wanted to see you hurt like that again.  When I saw the pictures of you with Kai and Lee out together having fun, my stomach sank.  I thought you’d moved on.  Those pictures looked like you and Kai were dating.  In every one of them he had a hand somewhere on you.”
    “Yes, but what you didn’t see was me pulling away from him.  You just keep jumping to conclusions.  None of this is fair to me.  For your information I never knew Kai and Lee were coming to stay at my house.”
    “Why didn’t you have them go to a hotel, Kasi?”
    “I don’t know,” I said and it was the truth.  “I was happy to see my friends that I didn’t think to have them stay somewhere else.  They are friends and nothing more.  I didn’t have a chance to do anything by the time you got there.  I was with you and faithful to you.  No matter what you think you saw I didn’t sleep with them before you showed up.”
    “What about after I left?”
    “Nothing!  Only friends.  Well, in an effort to fully disclose everything, Kai did kiss me, but I pulled away from him.”
    “He kissed you!  That’s huge Kasi!  If he’s in love with you I’m sure he took it to mean that there could be more between you and with me out of the picture, the door was wide open to a relationship with you.  So what happened after the kiss?”
    “Nothing at all.  We talked and slept.  That was it.”
    “Slept?  Like in the same bed?”
    “Yes, it is possible to sleep in the same bed as someone and not have sex.”
    “Bullshit!”
    “So I’m lying again?”
    “I don’t know what to believe anymore.  This is all so fucked up.”
    Looking straight into his eyes I said, “It’s only been you since we met.  My heart has only been yours.  I haven’t been with anyone else since we started dating.”
    “What about Kai?”
    “I made it clear that we could be nothing more than friends.  What about you?  Did you do anything with anyone while we were apart?”
    “No,” he said sternly.  “I didn’t even look at anyone else.”  He raked a hand through his hair.  “You own me, Kasi.  Heart, body, and soul.  Even when we were apart I was yours.  You’ve touched a part of me so deep and when I didn’t get to see you I ached.  My body psychically hurt without you near.  You weren’t the only one who was broken.”
    “You broke us, Radek, not me.”
    “I didn’t think I had any other choice.  Don’t you see?  I would do anything for you.  I would put my life on the line if it meant saving you one ounce of pain.  My entire world revolves around you.  If I’m not with you then you’re on my mind.  When I sleep, I dream about you.  Fuck, it’s bordering on an obsession.  I miss you, Kasi.  I don’t want to be away from you any longer.”
    Tears were pooling in his eyes and I knew he was being sincere.  He was telling me the truth, but was it enough to mend my broken heart?  Were his reasons justified?