“What about me? How did you rationalize my love?”
I look toward her. “I couldn’t rationalize it. But I always believed I don’t deserve your heart. That’s why Icalled you ‘Dove.’ So pure and untainted, someone I could only watch and never touch.”
“But you have touched me now,” she murmurs, shifting closer to me, hugging my arm and resting her head on my shoulder.
“Because I’m greedy,” I whisper.
“What can I do to make you believe I really love you?”
“I believe now,” I reply.
She looks up at me.
“Roxion told me about your plan of never marrying him.”
She pulls her arm away, sitting up straight. “I asked him not to tell anyone about it.”
“He’s not an idiot. He figured the person you love isn’t the son of our enemy but me. And you didn’t ask him to act in front of me to convince me, but to make me jealous.”
She purses her lips. “And he didn’t even tell me that he spilled the beans in front of you.” Her eyes widen. “Wait… now that Roxion knows about it, isn’t it a problem?”
“He won’t tell anyone. He’s not that type of man.”
She narrows her eyes. “So you believed that I loved you seriously only when you found out I was never going to marry Roxion? You didn’t believe it when I was falling into depression because of loving you?”
“I believed you when you said you loved me,” I answer quietly. “But I didn’t know the depth of it. I wanted to remove that love from your heart so you wouldn’t have to experience the harshness of the world for loving me. That’s why I proposed the idea of finding a guy for you to Dad. But even when you had a man like Roxion for yourself, you didn’t stop loving me. Instead, you used him to make me jealous. And I understood you wouldn’t stop loving me until I did something to push you away from me. And I can’t hurt you more than what I’ve already done.”
She nods, then stands up. “It feels nice to hear your head is out of your ass. But I’m not done being mad at you, so you can get lost now.”
I get up as well and stand in front of her. I lift my hand and brush her wet hair away from her neck. “I decided that night when you called my name that I could never allow you to call someone else’s name in that way.” I lean down and press my lips to her neck. Her shiver travels straight into my spine like a live wire, making my pulse hammer. “You were always mine, Dove, and you will always stay mine.”
“I haven’t said yes to that,” she mutters breathlessly.
I kiss just beneath her ear, my voice a low, possessive murmur. “Take your time and say yes. Because there is no ‘no’ in the option.”
Her head tilts slightly to the side. Her body welcomes me in the most beautiful way, like she was made for me. She is. Just like I am made for her.
I press my forehead to the top of hers. “I will wait for you,” I whisper, placing a gentle kiss on her head. “Desperately,” I murmur against her hair.
Avira
All I want right now is to walk out of that door in front of my eyes, take a left turn, open the door that will come after ten steps, enter inside, walk straight toward the man lying on the bed there and kiss him senseless. I want to tell him I want to live with him forever, love him forever, and have fifteen children with him. Okay, maybe not fifteen, but at least five.
But that would be a huge hit to my ego. I just told him less than an hour ago that I’m still mad at him. I should follow my words for at least longer than just an hour. A night will be enough, right?
No. I’ll make him suffer for at least a week. At least I can think like that. Imagination doesn’t hurt. Reality does. Like right now, my whole body is aching. I’ve read about missing someone so much that you feel it in your body. I guess that’s what they mean. But they never wrote about feeling cold as well.
I sneeze. “Fuck.” I sniff.
I’m sick.
I ask Veni to call Zoan. I’m sick, so he should be here taking care of me, or later he’ll feel guilt, and I don’t want him to feel that.
The voice in my head laughs, calling me a liar.
The call connects.
“I’ve got a cold,” I tell him, and the only reply I get is a beep.
