“Do you love me?”
His whispered question cuts me sharper than any blade. “Do you love me?”
Rhys sits up slowly, his movements measured, the flood of moonlight casting his face in a pale glow. “If I say yes, you won’t believe me. You’ll think it’s Cupid’s work or because you pieced me together, and therefore, I’m compelled to love you despite my free will.” He trails a knuckle down my cheek. “If I say I don’t, will that be a lie? Either way, my answer won’t be good enough. So, I ask you again, do you love me, Charlotte Allison Mallory?”
Do I?
I—
“Your hesitation says everything.”
My eyes drift closed as my head tilts down, my heart and head locked in a violent battle. Is this love? Possibly. It was never like this with Jason. I never feared losing him, not once during our ten years together. Yet, from the moment I looked up and saw Rhys sitting opposite me at Molly D’s, I felt like there was a string that connected us. One that had absolutely nothing to do with Cupid or that app or…anything other than…us.
“Please stay with me.”
Rhys must hear the note of panic in my voice and see the tears that slip from my eyes to spill down my flushed cheeks. He buries his hand in my hair, fisting the long strands, tugging only hard enough to force me to tilt my head to look at his face. “Whatever happens at midnight is fated, Charlotte. We were always just along for the ride.”
“Bullshit,” I snap. I refuse to accept that a malicious winged cherub gets to decide our fate. “Do you want to stay?”
But what if he doesn’t? What if Rhys prefers the void to me?
And therein lies my problem. The emotional abuse Jason inflicted left deep damage, and even now, in these last moments with this beautiful man, I can’t let go of that ingrained cynicism.
“Of course I want to stay,” Rhys growls. He shoves me away to gaze out the window. “You think I want to go back to that fucking place where I’m…” He flexes his hands, grasping at the air. “Where I’m nothing? Where the shape of your smile, and the golden flecks in your green eyes, and the sweet flavor of your body will haunt me until the last star swallows the last galaxy?” He turns back to me, and I see it in his eyes—the desperation festering in my heart reflected in his searching gaze. “But we were doomed to fail, Charlotte.”
“What? What are you saying, Rhys? I don’t understand.”
His bitter laughter falls around us like drops of icy rain. “Cupid believes love conquers everything.” He rakes his fingers through his messy, dark hair. Then, with a shake of his head, he adds, “But mortal hearts don’t work that way. Your hearts are complicated. That’s the beauty of you, Charlotte. Your tragedy. Your complexity. All the intricacies that make you unique. That’s what Cupid can’t manipulate with his”—he makes air quotes—“arrow.”
I grab his wrist and slowly twist his hand. Blinking away fresh tears, I kiss his upturned palm. I keep hold of him, clutchinghis arm to my chest as if I can keep him here by sheer force of will. “Please don’t go.”
“We’ll be okay, Charlotte.”
“I’m sorry, Rhys. Oh, God, I’m so sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for.” He wipes away my tears before brushing his lips across mine. “Don’t waste our last moments together like this.”
Shaking my head, I lie right to his beautiful face. “I won’t.”
Inside, though, I’m screaming, crying, and begging Cupid to allow Rhys to stay, even as he’s slipping through my fingers like sand. His connection to me is fading more with each passing second. But Rhys kisses me, his mouth a frantic distraction.
“I will never regret these days we spent together.” Rhys murmurs against the frenzied pulse on the side of my throat. “Fucking never.”
With my arms wrapped tight around Rhys’s body, the heavy and frenetic beat of his heart resonates against my chest. “I’ll bring you back. I swear it on my life.”
But even as I make this promise, I drift off into the deepest sleep.
The blackest sleep.
The coldest sleep.
And the loneliest sleep I’ve ever known.
Chapter Twenty-One
The emptiness hits even before I open my eyes.
I’m alone.
