“You chose to stay.” She closes her eyes, but a single tear slides down her cheek. I rub it with the ball of my thumb and put it in my mouth. “I’ll drink your tears.” Her eyes snap open, and the fire isn’t back, but it’s simmering underneath the surface. “Don’t be a pussy. Talk.”
“I want to leavenow,” she says.
“No.”
“What the fuck do you mean no?” She shoves me, but all I do is laugh at her attempts to hurt me. She pushes against me until I’ve had enough and grab both her wrists.
“I mean no. I gave you many chances to leave, and you didn’t. You’re mine.” The words have a finality to them. We’ve done this dance for too long, and it’s time to put it to bed.
“Excuse me?”
“You’remine,” I practically growl.
She shakes her head as if she’s either in denial or she didn’t hear me. But I know she heard me. She’s still fighting it, and that’s her right, but the chase is over, and I’ve won.
“I will not be some mobster’s fuck buddy.” She tries to get up again, but I restrain her.
“I’m not in the mob,” I say as gently as possible. “And you’re not a fuck buddy. You think I would call a fuck buddy mine?”
She opens and closes her mouth.
I’m not sure what she’s thinking, but I speak again. “There’s no one else. There won’t be anyone else.”
Both eyebrows shoot to her forehead at my declaration. Another tear falls, but she swipes it away before I can get to it.
“Don’t do that. Let me.” I run my thumb down the path of the tear.
“You’re offering me fidelity?” she asks in disbelief.
“Not offering. It’s already yours,” I announce.
She stares into my eyes and blinks several times. “Let me go, please?”
I think she’s trying to be commanding, but her words come out like a question.
“I can’t.”
She tries to pull her wrists from mine, but I don’t release her. I wait for her to tire herself out. She lets out a wail, and I finally let her go. I put a hand on the back of her neck and pull her down on top of me. She cries into my neck, and I hold her and run my fingertips down her spine.
The tears dry up, and her breathing returns to normal. Her hand lands on my chest, and that little movement is enough to reawaken my body. I know she feels me underneath her.
“Accept it, Eden, because I have.”
“Accept what?”
“This. Us.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then tell me.”
“You’re complicated, and my parents will never …” She doesn’t finish her thought, but I know what she means. They’ll never accept me or us, and will make her life difficult.
“I promise you they will.” I stroke her soft skin.
“You can’t promise me that.”
“Trust me.”
