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CAUGHT IN A abrupt haze of delirium, it had taken a considerable amount of time before I found the strength to move my legs again.
Raleigh was still making a beeline for the floor, not once sparing a cursory glance behind him to see if I was still behind on his tail. I couldn't blame him, though. Especially with the loud music thumping erratically and the sufficient amount of guests splattered across the room, the whole thing was quite distracting really and hard to keep up with.
Enough for me to want to run for the hills, or at least anywhere else that wouldn't risk my potential partner smacking into my former partner.
I decided the sight of it would be too sore on the eyes. So rapidly, I deemed it best to just turn and step away from the inevitable fiasco that was mere seconds away from undoing itself. However, going through with the aforementioned was swiftly disrupted at the bellowing sound of my husband's voice that stormed through the room and abruptly halted me dead in my tracks.
"Delilah!"
Shutting my eyes, I stifle a stream of breath under my tongue. Because it couldn't always pan out like this, me always running adrift never knowing where or what I was running to. And him, aimlessly chasing after me so long as he'd eventually catch me. Not this time. Not ever again.
So with a swift spin of the foot, I was spinning back towards him until his distant figure began closing in on me, shaping closer and eventually, already here. The expression drawn on Chris' face was alight with a certain kind of venom, a treacherous look in his blue eyes and a cross line tightening his lips. "Damn it, Lila," he snarled, his fingers retrieving my arm and latched onto it unforgivably. "When the hell are you going to stop running away from me?"
It's difficult to right my breath, considering the ridiculous amount of adrenaline that'd been rushing through my veins ever since I spotted him in the ballroom. He's always had this peculiar way of having that affect. Always being that one person in the room that could have someone pining for their breath instead of making them breathe easy.
But that affect had long since become dormant from the moment my feelings for him had plateaued out. Instead of feeling breathless around him, it felt more like I was getting suffocated by him. Maybe it was from that fixed point that he became the man I couldn't quite figure out anymore. Maybe it was then that I became someone indecipherable.
"How'd you figure it was me?"
"I would find you anywhere, in any lifetime." He returned, simply. "Mask on – mask off."
His admission quickly heightened the pace of my heart as I blinked back at him in tasteful mortification. He always did have a soft way with words. Why couldn't his actions match alongside them? "Chris..."
