Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)
His eyes snapped closed; he hugged me so, so hard. “I really don’t fucking deserve you.”
“Yet I’m yours, so doesn’t that tell you that you’re worthy? Regardless if you believe it or not?”
He shuddered. “Ily, I—”
“I know.” I yawned, the intensity of the day catching up with me.
“If anything ever happens to you…” He suffocated me in another hug. “My heart would stop alongside yours. If this twin flame thing is real and you are my missing piece…then I don’t want to exist without you.”
I stroked his chest and did my best to lighten the heavy darkness. “You know…most girls would go running if a man said such things so early in their relationship.”
“You run, and I’ll chase you.”
“Tempting.” I giggled.
“Fuck, isn’t it,” he groaned. “I’d pin you down. Take you on all fours. Christ…”
My insides clenched. I waited for him to shove off the blankets and put on a show for the cameras, but…his melancholy returned, and he hugged me right against his heart. “I’ve always known you were the one.” Fractures of grey appeared in his gaze, fighting back the black. “Also…say that again.”
“Say what again?”
“The part where we’re in a relationship.”
“Oh.” I grinned. “Well…I don’t know if we are. You haven’t exactly asked me.”
“You’re right.” Pinning me onto my back, he settled his legs between mine. His lips quirked with a boyish, blinding smile. “Ilyana Sharma…I saw you, and I knew you. You’re brave enough to face up to me. Kind enough to forgive me. And wise enough to see things in me that even I don’t see. If you run, I will chase. I will always chase you even if you don’t want me because I need to protect you. I’m loyal to you and only you, and I’ll do whatever it takes to deserve you, all while knowing I never will. And so…I need to ask you…beg you really. Please put me out of my misery and say you’ll go steady with me.”
Tears pressed against the back of my eyes as my body cradled his and our pulse thudded to the same beat. Somehow, I’d found a monster with the most devoted heart. A heart riddled with darkness but also aglow with light.
I had no idea if we would ever get out of here or for how long we would belong to one another, but right there, in that moment, I felt the world shift and realign, snapping us together. “Jeez, okay then.” I grinned. “I’ll go steady with you.”
“Thank God.” He kissed me.
Deeply.
Madly.
Our tongues stroked, our breath caught, and when he finally pulled away, drowsiness pounced, and he rearranged me on my side. Settling closer, he spooned me again. “Get some sleep…wife.”
My eyes flew open, my heart skipped. “Eh, Henri?”
“Hmm?”
“I agreed to be your girlfriend, not your wife.”
“Same thing.”
“Eh, not quite.”
“In my eyes?” He squeezed me. “The moment I met you, I put an invisible ring on your finger. It’s there, Ily. It’s always been there.”
It shouldn’t.
My heart really shouldn’t jive and skip.
No other man could say what Henri did and ever be called sane. But…I couldn’t help it. I fell for his chattiness, his eagerness, his absolutely depraved and damaged heart.
Wife was just a title.
Girlfriend was just a word.
And what we had transcended both of them.
I closed my eyes as sleep crept closer. “If I’m agreeing to be your wife, I hope it’s a huge invisible diamond on my finger.”
“Ah, about that. Unfortunately, it’s small. Positively tiny, actually.” He chuckled behind me. “I’m penniless, after all.”
“You know what? I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want a diamond. This place has cured me of my love of gems. A simple string knotted into a circle would be enough.”
“And that’s why I.L.Y.,” he breathed.
Tears shot to my eyes. My memory of Krish saying those three little letters before he went to bed each night. Knowledge that Henri was no longer afraid of such things.
“I.L.Y. too,” I whispered.
He exhaled and snuggled closer.
Sleep kept creeping but before it towed me into dreams, I murmured, “Tomorrow, after I’ve met with Peter and we’ve had breakfast, I’ll go to the kitchens alone. If you follow me twenty minutes later, no one should get suspicious. We’ll be able to tell you everything.”
His arms banded tighter around me. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. He didn’t speak for a while, our breathing syncing and slowing. Ever so quietly, he said, “I tossed the cufflinks over the wall. I doubt the signal scrambler suddenly stops working outside the castle, but…I had to try.”
“You called your brother even knowing he’ll try to kill you?”
“I called my brother because if I don’t get you out of here, I want him to kill me.”
The truth of that punched me in the chest. The honesty of his affection and the depth of our connection. Our bond couldn’t die in here. Whatever this was. Whatever we’d become. Neither of us could die.