I left him here all alone.
My sobs rattle me to my core.
After a quiet pause, Niklaus lunges for me, hands clutching my collarbone—a centimeter away from wrapping around my throat. And he pins me to the bars so suddenly I shriek, crying out at the sudden burst of aggression that is more than warranted and so well-deserved.
“Kill me!” I sob violently, still holding my hands up to show I will not fight back. “I—I can never forgive myself. I thought I made it back—but it’s been—it’s been, oh God, it’s beentenyears!”
He hesitates to grip the life out of me with that crazed, homicidal look in his eyes.
“I deserve to fucking die for this, Niklaus! I’m so sorry!”
He tilts his head. Each muscle ripples like a coiled beast is trying to tear through his skin to kill me itself. It’s as if he’s been taunted before with the hope that I’ve come back. Like he’s in complete denial that it’s actually me standing here in front of him.
“But—you have to know it wasn’t on purpose. I swear to God, Niklaus, I would have never left you behind of my own will!”
A flicker of confusion sweeps across his stoic, callous expression.
His hands are fortified steel around me, rough like sandpaper against my chest. They twitch and tighten, and he observes me like an animal trying to decide how much of a threat I am.
Seeing him again heightens every feeling I’ve tried to bury since the moments I began to fall for him in that asylum. It’s an unstoppable force fusing my soul to his. I am no longer capable of feeling hatred for him. No longer adept at denying the way my heart jumps and writhes in my chest, frantic to feel his body press against mine.
I pant against the metal bar plastered over his handsome lips.
If I am going to die here, there isn’t a chance in hell I’ll depart this world without telling him my heart is his. After all he’s been through, the truth will not be held from him. No matter if he rejects it or not.
“Iloveyou.” I’ve carried these words like a knife tucked under my ribs. “I am sorry! I love you, and I’ve fought my way back to you. I will always fight my way back to you. I love you, Niklaus!”
Each purge of tears is hollowing out my chest with an insatiable yearning that is being horrifically bludgeoned by guilt.
The wordlovestrikes him like a bolt of lightning to his chest. He balks back, releasing my upper body, stunned and speechless. His lashes flutter, short, tight bursts of blinking.
Tears form over his eyes like molten glass.
“I fell for you in that asylum,” I whisper in an injured, fragmented voice.
Niklaus is dreadfully cautious and probing my body language for any signs of deception. He has had ten years of living with the enemy. Ten years of rejecting hope that I would come back for him. Ten years of getting used to constant lies and betrayal.
“I loved you when you held me that night after Meridei put us through that treatment.”
The bits of faded memory dilate his pupils. His breathing is loud and leaden, huffing through his nose as if he has been running up a mountain, as if he is working hard not to cry. That gorgeous stare flares wide, like he’s witnessing a ghost no one else can see.
With vigilant steps forward, he occupies the air I breathe once more. Staring down at me to gauge my reaction. And unexpectedly, his forehead pushes against mine, and he closes his eyes.
I whimper at the sudden, inviting contact.
“I’ve come back to you,” I whisper sweetly.
Niklaus’s grunt is muffled against the metal cuff, and in a stern frenzy, he anchors his hips into mine, caging me against his body. The impulsive need to be as close to me as possible thrums a hot shiver of desire low in my belly.
I melt into the hard lines of him. My hands act on their own impulses by exploring every scar, every burn, ever beating he has endured since I’ve been gone. And he doesn’t seem to mind at all, in fact, my delicate touch spurs him on. He nudges his nose into my hair, inhaling my scent like he has been waiting years to capture that aroma again.
“Oh,” I purr as he jerks my waist against him even harder. That rough, primal touch triggers a static pulse between my legs. And I squirm in his arms as the ache to have more of him develops thick and sweltering in my veins.
His hands tear into my undergarment black slip until his knuckles turn white.
“You can have me,” I pant against his face. “My love, you can have me however you want me.”
My words are storm clouds over a dry wilderness. He lifts his gaze, and something in him, if only a small portion—heals. Though a mild hesitation still hovers close by.
