Diavolo

xl

ONE YEAR LATER

PRESLEY CARMICHAEL

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." I slammed the doorway open not bothering to hide my disdain for the ginger-haired man sleeping on his stomach. Naked. Bare-chested with nothing but a pillow underneath his face. "Beast!"

He jerked awake immediately almost like I'd poured a bucket of ice cold water down his face.

        Groggily, he shot me a sleepy gaze, stretching those large biceps and groaning.

        "Darling." He tilted his head slightly in recognition. "This gonna be our new wake-up call now?"

I leaned against the doorway with an exasperated sigh. "Get your ass up."

My gaze flickered over to the woman beside him who'd woken up due to the bickering between us. A sight and waltz I'd been through multiple times I couldn't even keep track of anymore.

"The bathroom is on the left, and he's not going to call you back, babe. He's a whore."

"Hey!" Beast's deep voice rumbled as he struggled to wrangle out of the bedsheets he seemed to have gotten stuck in. "That's quite rude, darling."

I rolled my eyes, my patience thinning slowly as I watched him grunt. "My apologizes. He's a manwhore so don't bother giving him your number."

The woman's gaze flickered back at forth between Beast's penty-melting smile and my stern glare. "And if you're thinking, you can fix him. You can't. It's a genetic thing. Beast, get dressed."

He had the audacity to give me a little pout, sinking into the bedsheets. "You're mean."

"Yeah, I am." I threw a glare at him over my shoulder as I began walking out of the doorway. "Get dressed or I won't make you breakfast."

"You're so sweet and lovely, darling. I never meant any of that! Please make me breakfast." I heard his voice chasing me down the hallway as I walked towards my bedroom.

I fought the urge to laugh as I slammed my door shut and slipped into the shower. So much for a quiet morning.

I should have known that there was nothing quiet about living with Beast especially since he'd begged to share an apartment with me in hopes of me not being lonely but I quickly realized it was because of the free food.

The man cared about food, that was it.

Walking out of the bedroom, the first thing I noticed was the bouquet of roses beautifully placed on the marble counter.

I knew who it was from and even after receiving the roses constantly for a year, it didn't stop my body from freezing up in response.

There was a note, something he'd never done before but it was now staring at me in the face. Beautiful cursive letters in black dotted ink spilling in words across the card with a note tilted Happy birthday to my Angel.

Tears welled in the corner of my eyes at his message and I could see every single memory hitting me at the speed of a train running me over and destroying my mental sanity.

He hurt me, I pushed him away, he left me at my request and when he promised to leave, I didn't know he meant it literally.

        He packed his bags, left the country without a word and that destroyed me even more.