Read Online Fallen Eden by Nicole Williams - Free Book Online

last thing he’d have of me, words that basically told him I was in love with someone else.
    Not able to resist it, I leaned down to feel his breath break across my face, inhaling him one last time.
    “Goodbye,” I whispered beside his ear. “I won’t hurt you anymore.”
    The tears weren’t flowing as they should have been, probably because I was more shell than soul now, but I didn’t mind because I was able to take my last look of him with perfect vision. The man who’d filled me with a love and desire I never dreamed possible and the man I’d always known wasn’t meant for me.
    “Thank you . . .  for everything,” I said, looking my last on him before turning and leaping out the window in the same second. Now I’d said good-bye, I needed to put as much space and time between us as I could.
    I ducked into the shadows outside the house, preparing to launch down the gravel trail and away from this place that now felt like foreign soil.
    “Maybe I should start teaching you the fine arts of espionage,” a voice commented behind me. “Rule number one—always be aware of your surroundings.”
    I somehow stiffened and relaxed at the same time. “Patrick,” I whispered, “you’re alright.” I turned around to see him getting off the wooden swing hanging from the sprawling maple in the back yard. He walked towards me, adorned in blue scrub bottoms and a white undershirt. His sandals flopped his way towards me. “You mind telling me what you’re doing sneaking in and out of my brother’s bedroom at this hour?’
    His eyebrows peaked and he stopped several feet in front of me. “Because, given his current state, I know you weren’t doing what you two are normally up to.” His impish grin didn’t quite explode with its normal force, plus his shoulders slumped a couple inches lower than normal.
    “How are you feeling?” I whispered, not able to look him in the eyes. “Are you alright?”
    “Never been better,” he joked. “Nothing like the zap of ten of John Townsend’s thugs to make you feel alive again.”
    “That’s not funny,” I said, reprimanding him before glancing at the window behind me.
    “He’s going to be alright too,” Patrick said, noting my stare, before chuckling. “Although William will now have a working knowledge of the phrase, ‘love hurts,’ don’t you think?”
    My eyes narrowed into slits when I looked back at him. How was he able to make light of something so serious? Had William’s hand connected with my skin for another heartbeat or two, Patrick and I would be having a very different conversation.
    “Sensitive, are we?” he said, raising his hands.
    “You should be resting,” I said, changing the subject.
    He snorted. “Sleep is for the weak. Besides, I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what you’re up to.”
    I looked down, not able to look him in the eyes. “I’m leaving,” I mouthed, not making a sound.
    “I’m not a lip-reader. You’re going to have to repeat that for me,” he said, taking a couple steps forward. “Perhaps turn it up a notch or two—”
    “I’m leaving,” I interrupted, shifting my eyes to his.
    “Where are you going?” he asked, not understanding.
    I filled my lungs. “I’m leaving, Patrick. Away from here, for good.”
    His eyebrows came together and he looked as if he hadn’t understood the words that had just come out of my mouth. A few more seconds went by, where I was both waiting and dreading for the realization of what I’d meant to click.
    Another second ticked off and I saw it register on Patrick’s face. The curl of confusion in his eyebrows ironed out before they took a sharp slant downward and his eyes filled with ice. I repressed a shudder.
    “You are not leaving,” he seethed through his teeth. “Not after everything he’s been through. Not if it’s up to me.”
    “It’s not up to you,” I said, feeling lower than pond scum from the look he was giving me.
    “Then why?’ he asked, his