Love Me Never

23| Kissed

I changed the chapter name

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Kissed

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Chapter 23: Kissed (Ava's POV)

We've been sitting in the library, it's almost three in the morning now, and we've been relentlessly looking through past records from around that time, separating all loan requests and sorting through those, trying to link those people to Liam. 

We both sighed in sync, tossing the files we were reading onto the table and leaning back. I slumped in my chair, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"We should take a break," he suggested, standing up and stretching, his t-shirt riding up, giving me a peek of his waist. "Do you want anything to drink? Wine?" 

I looked up at his face. "Wine? It's three in the morning." 

"Who cares? Red or white?" 

"Rhys," I deadpanned. 

He rested his hands on his chair, leaning forward. "Red or white?" 

I paused for a minute before rolling my eyes. "White." 

He bit back a smile and walked over to the bar to get the drinks. 

I stood up, stretching and shrugging the robe off my shoulder, dropping it in my chair before walking over to the window, staring at the backyard. I glanced at the full moon before making my way to the bar, sitting on one of the stools while he grabbed the glasses and opened the bottle of wine. I rested my arms on the counter, watching him. 

Three years we were apart. We rarely spoke, we acted like strangers, acquaintances at most simply because my father works for his. There were numerous rumors of him during that time. Rumors about him dating another princess, dates he brought to certain parties, being caught on dates with other girls. I sat there, hearing them all. And it hurt. But were any of them true? 

"Rhys." 

He turned to me, sliding one glass over to me. "Yes?" 

"Did you... date anyone else? After me?" 

He watched me, neither of us looking away and a heavy cloud of silence stopping right over our heads. He wasn't answering and neither of us had touched our drinks. 

"Did you sleep with someone else?" 

Nothing, he was just watching me with a calculating look in his eyes and amusement etched onto his face. 

I rolled my eyes. "Have you ever been in love?" 

"Only once." 

"After me?" My voice raised on its own accord and my eyebrows shot up in surprise and I was fucking offended and hurt. 

He chuckled, resting his elbows on the table. "I've only been in love once, Ava. And it was with you."