LINES THAT SHOULDN'T BE CROSSED
792 Words
“You destroyed my phone?” Naomi’s voice cracked through the air.
Ronaldo stood between her and the door, dark eyes revealing. “You were going to walk into a trap.”
“You are the trap!”
He stepped closer, the heat of him swallowing the space between them. “You don’t get to lie to me and then expect protection.”
“You don’t get to control me!” she snaps.
A dangerous silence unfolds. The air felt electric like lightning was about to strike.
“I’m not trying to control you,” he said, low and rough. “I’m trying to keep you alive.”
Naomi’s breath caught. There was something in his eyes rage, yes, but also fear. The kind of fear people don’t show unless they care.
Too much.
She hated that part of her that wanted to believe it.
Ronaldo reached up and gently touched and pulled her hair behind her ear.
“You think I don’t know what this is?” he murmured.
Naomi’s "wonders". What are you talking about?
“This thing between us.”
She swallowed hard. “A mistake.”
His lips brushed her temple. “Then why haven’t you stopped it?”
He was close enough now that she could feel his heartbeat. Or maybe it was hers, trying to match his.
Trying to remember how to say no.
“I don’t want to want you,” she whispered.
“But you do,” Ronaldo said.
And then he kissed her.
Not soft. Not tender.
Desperate.
It was a kiss full of fury and anxiety. The need and the weight of a thousand buried secrets.
Naomi kissed him back, because for one reckless second, she wanted to forget the danger and the lies. She wanted to remember how it felt to feel.
But then,
She pushed him away.
“We can’t do this,” she gaps. “You said it yourself. I’m just a puppet. And you’re trying to play my master.”
Ronaldo face drops sad. “Not anymore.”
“Liar,” she whispered, brushing past him.
She didn’t look back.
She couldn’t.
Because if she did, she wasn’t sure she’d ever leave.
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The next morning, Naomi found her way out. Not through betrayal. Through preparation.
She paid off a guard. Used his phone. Arranged her movements.
By nightfall, she was on her way back to the city.
To David.
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Pier 23 was quiet under the moonlight. A cargo ship groaned in the distance, but the ship itself was abandoned except for a single figure leaning against some rail.
David.
He didn’t move when she approached. Just stared out at the water like it could wash the world away.
“You came,” he said.
“I always intended to.”
David turned. His face was tired, “Did he touch you?”
Naomi froze. “Is that really your first question?”
“It’s the only one that matters,” he said.
She stepped closer, voice sharp. “And what if he did? Going to add me to your list of betrayals?”
David looked down. “I just wanted to warn you. That message you got? I didn’t send it.”
“I figured.”
“But I still needed you here.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t pretend anymore, Naomi. I can’t act like I don’t want you. Like I haven’t always wanted you.”
She stared at him, stunned. “You barely know me.”
“I know enough. I know the way it tingles you when someone touches your past. I know the way you hold power like a blade, not a gift. I know you’re terrified of love, because love means surrender.”
Naomi’s “You think you’re any different?” She says,
David stepped into her space, eyes burning. “I think I’d burn for you.”
She reached up slowly, her fingers brushing his jaw. “Then why does it feel like everyone who wants me is willing to watch me fall?”
He caught her hand, pressed it to his chest.
“I wouldn’t watch,” he said. “I’d jump with you.”
Their mouths met in a kiss that tasted like sweet and sour all at once. Where Ronaldo had been fire, David was storm and dark.
But in the back of her mind, a voice whisperes
One of them will break you.
And one of them… already had.
As they stood on the pier, arms wrapped around each other, Naomi’s phone beeped in her coat pocket.
Unknown number.
One line.
You were warned.
And then a second message:
Now he dies.
David’s phone began to ring.
And behind them, a shot is heard!
- Writer
