Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
What the hell else could she possibly have to say?
I rub my forehead, push a stray piece of hair out of my eyes.
“Fine. What is it?”
“All right.” She swallows. “I’m just going to go right ahead and say it.”
“You don’t see me stopping you.” I sit down on the side of the bed.
Silence.
More silence.
Until finally—
“I love you, Dragon.”
My body goes cold.
She didn’t just say that. Did she?
No one has ever said those words to me. Not since I was barely nine years old.
And I didn’t last hear them from my mother or my father.
No.
I last heard them from Griffin. My little sister. The little sister who adored me. Every time she put on those jammies and went to bed, she would come give me a hug and a kiss on my cheek. A slobbery five-year-old kiss that I would immediately wipe off.
Then she’d say, “I love you, Dragon.”
And I would say “I love you too, Griffin.”
She’d scramble off to bed, my mother following her, where she would read Griffin a story, and then lights out.
I love you, Dragon.
I hear the words in her little five-year-old voice.
Except it wasn’t Griffin who said them.
It was Diana.
Diana’s sweet and sultry voice.
Diana…who I love right back.
“You don’t have to say it back,” she says. “But you do need to acknowledge that I said it.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Diana
Silence hangs in the room.
Did I just make a terrible mistake?
Is it ever a mistake to tell someone you love them?
People are supposed to love that. Even if he doesn’t feel the same way, I want him to know that I love him. That he’s worth loving.
Finally he opens his mouth. “I’m not sure what to say.”
“Like I said, you don’t have to say it back.”
But my heart breaks a little as I say the words. I want him to love me back. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.
I know he’s attracted to me. I know he likes to fuck me.
Do his feelings go any further than that? Is he even capable of such feelings?
Another moment passes.
I open my mouth to say again that he needs to at least acknowledge my statement, but then—
“I am sin,” he says, his voice low, troubled.
I roll my eyes. “Stop giving me that bullshit. What happened to your sister is not your fault. What your parents did to you was not your fault. You’ve had some shit in your life, Dragon. Haven’t we all?”
I regret those words as soon as I say them.
Because my life has been pretty much wine and roses.
I can’t say the same for my father or my two brothers. And of course, there was that alcohol poisoning thing when I was a freshman in high school, but I survived.
To my surprise, he doesn’t call me on it.
“Diana, so many things are going through my mind right now.”
“I know.” I lean forward and lay a hand on his upper arm. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have laid this on you.”
He shakes his head. “That’s not what I mean. I have a chance at possibly finding my sister. And I have a niece that I don’t even know. None of that can erase what happened to Griffin. The life she’s been forced to lead. But damn…”
“I’m so sorry,” I say.
“I don’t want you to be sorry, Diana. I want you to be—” He clenches his hands into fists. “Damn it! I just want… I want things I have no business wanting.”
I’m not sure what to say to that. Is he talking about finding his sister? Wanting the love of his mother? Or is he talking about…me?
Probably a bit of all of them.
“It’s not a sin to want something, Dragon.”
“It is when you’re not worthy.” He looks away. “It is when—”
“Shut the fuck up,” I say, my tone forceful. “I’m tired of hearing you say that. You are as worthy as anyone else.”
“I’m not worthy of you.”
“Isn’t that for me to say?” I grab his face, force him to look at me. “I’m in love with you, Dragon. I didn’t plan to fall in love. A week ago, I barely knew you existed. Then you showed up on my doorstep, and I got to know you—”
“You don’t know me.”
I slap him gently—but firmly—on his cheek. “I swear to God if you interrupt me again, I’m going to give you a good punch to your jaw. And yeah, I couldn’t possibly actually hurt you, but it’ll be worth it.”
He simply raises his eyebrows.
“Fine. Now let me finish.” I wait a moment, catching my breath. “I’m here for you. I want to do whatever I can to help you find Griffin. And your niece. And to put whoever did this behind bars.”
He looks down, runs his hands through his hair. “I just hate not being able to do anything. All I can do is wait to hear what Alayna says. She could call in a minute or a week. I have no idea.” He sighs. “I came here to see my mother. What a disappointment that was.”