“Would you have loved me if I were ugly?”
I laugh. “Maybe.”
She looks up at me with half-open eyes, glaring adorably. “You don’t love me. You only love my body.”
I kiss her lips again, slower this time. “If your eyes had been of different colors, if your nose was this long, if your skin had ten different shades, even if you looked like a real demon, I’d still love you the same. Because no matter how you look, you’re my Dove. My life.”
“And what if you had never met me in childhood?” she asks quietly. “Your life would’ve been good. Would you have still fallen for me when we met later?”
“From where are all these pointless questions coming?” I knock lightly on her head.
She catches my hand and pulls it back. “Answer me.”
“I would’ve fallen for you the moment I laid my eyes on you. My heart would’ve beaten the same way it didsixteen years ago, when I didn’t even know a heart could beat like that, like it had finally found what it was searching for all along.”
I lean closer, my breath brushing her lips. “I would’ve thought a thousand times before touching you, afraid I might taint you.”
I kiss her smiling lips again.
“No matter where I was born or how I lived,” I whisper against her mouth, “I would’ve always found my way to you.”
Some things are destined to happen, and this—you and me—was one of them.
Bonus Preview
Chapter 1 of Cursed by Denial
16 October 2050
Iselyn (20 years old)
“I don’t drink,” I tell Selly again, just in case she didn’t hear me the first time.
“Ohh, Isa, you should try this! This is the best thing you’ve ever taken in your mouth,” Paige leans closer. “Actually, it’s the second best thing. The best thing is always a hard dick.”
She winks, Selly and Mari burst out laughing.
“Go on, Isa, we’re cheering for you,” Mari says.
They call me Isa here, which isn’t even part of my name. But I guess it’s better than Isaliye or Isale or whatever other strange versions they come up with. I honestly don’t know what’s so difficult about pronouncing Iselyn.
I take a sip of the drink. My face instantly scrunches up at the bitter taste. I cough and quickly set the glass down before asking the bartender for water.
Their laughter follows. “You’re so cute,” Selly says, smiling.
“I guess that’s why every other guy here is dying to take you on a date,” Mari adds, I think I catch a not-so-friendly flicker in her eyes beneath her smile.
“Would you like to join us on the floor?” Paige asks, gesturing toward the crowd of dancers.
I shake my head. “I’ll wait here.”
They don’t ask me again and leave for the dance floor. These girls are fellow researchers in my group—whom, to be honest, I want to bond with because staying alone isn’t much fun. But I guess I’ll soon start finding enjoyment in being alone.
I glance around the club, the laughter and flashing lights feeling too loud, and I can’t help but regret my decision to come here.
There isn’t a single good thing that has happened to me in this city. I guess today is my regret day.
I was doing perfectly fine back in Vladivostok—developing my plant-based natural medicines with steady progress. Then I got the challenge of creating a formula for a rare skin disease called Poyasa. And I thought coming here would help. Not really my fault though, this whole country claims that this university has the best ethnopharmacologists. Bullshit.
