But I want to say it.
I want my name on her lips eventually.
I want a lot of things, actually.
I take another step closer.
She doesn't back away, doesn't even flinch.
Brave.
Foolish.
Both.
"You belong to me now."
The words hang between us.
Heavy. Irrevocable.
She should accept it.
Should lower her eyes and nod and make this easy on both of us.
Instead, she straightens.
Lifts her chin.
Meets my eyes dead-on.
And says the last thing I expected:
"My name is Eden Finch. And I don't belong to anyone."
For a moment, I'm genuinely surprised.
Then I smile.
I can't help it.
She has no idea what she's just started.
No idea that defiance is the one thing guaranteed to make me want to break her completely.
Not break her spirit. Never that.
But break her certainty.
Her walls.
Her conviction that she can resist what's happening between us.
Because something is happening.
I felt it on that stage.
Feel it now, standing three feet away from her.
