His breath stutters. He tips my chin up gently, thumbs brushing away my tears like they’re something precious.
“I’m sorry, Lily.” He whispers.
I shake my head, breath coming in broken gasps. “W-why? How can you be sorry? It was you… You stopped him. You’re the one I’ve been searching for.”
He lowers his forehead to mine, his voice rough. “I’m so fucking sorry that I didn’t tell you the truth sooner. I should have told you before we fell for each other. I knew your past before you had the strength to tell me.”
I inhale again, deliberately this time. His aftershave calms me instantly, settles something frantic in my chest. “If I could choose any man in the world,” I whisper, my hands curling into his lapels, “who I would have wanted to be the one who saved me that night… it would always be you, Drago.”
Tears spill freely now, but they don’t hurt. They heal. “I’m not crying because I’m upset. I’m crying because it all makes sense. We… are just meant to be. You are my protector. I get it. You wanted me to fall for you… not because of anything in the past.”
He pulls back just enough to cup my cheeks, his gaze searching my face like he’s memorizing me all over again. “I’m glad it was me, too. But that night… it changed a lot for me. I need to–”
My heart races. I know there’s more. I can see it in his eyes. I don’t want to break this fragile, perfect bubble. Not yet. “Can you kiss me, Drago?”
His smile is soft. “I’ve imagined doing this every second since we came back from Monaco.”
And then his lips are on mine. It’s slow. Careful. Like he’s afraid this moment might shatter if he takes too much too fast. His mouth brushes mine once as if he’s testing.
I fist my hands into his jacket. When I kiss him back, the world finally aligns.
The years of fear. The unanswered questions. The ache that never had a name. All of it goes quiet.
His hand slides into my hair, fingers threading through my curls with a familiarity that makes my chest ache.
He tilts his head, kissing me like he’s been holding this back for years. Like this is worship. Like this is home.
This isn’t just a kiss.
It’s an apology without words. A promise he already kept. A vow he never stopped living by.
When he finally pulls back just enough to breathe, his forehead rests against mine, his breath uneven, warm against my skin.
Nothing needs to be said.
The truth lives in the way he holds me. In the way my body knows his. In the way this moment feels less like a beginning…
And more like coming home.
CHAPTER SIXTY
Drago
Song, Constellations, Piano Version, Jade LeMac.
“Baby, let me tell you everything. I need to get it out. I don’t want anything getting between us again,” I whisper against her lips.
I don’t want to ruin this moment. God knows I don’t. But lies rot things from the inside out, and I’ve already learned that lesson the hard way.
Because her knowing I’m the one who rescued her that night, isn’t the end of this. Being the man wearing that cologne isn’t the whole truth. I was worried that even finding out this, she’d push me away. But she hasn’t. And she deserves to know just how far my obsession with her runs. How the last five years of my life have been dedicated to her, in ways it probably shouldn’t.
I didn’t mean to fall for her. I tried my fucking hardest not to. I wanted to keep her at a distance, keep her safe even from me. What if she thinks I’ve manipulated this moment? That I’ve been fucking with her life behind her back to drag her to me.
Because that can’t be further from the truth. I’ve purposely punished myself to keep her away, keep her out of the darkness so she can live in the light.
“What else can there possibly be, Drago?” she asks softly, her voice trembling.
I close my eyes and take a slow breath. Here goes. The real moment of truth. “It was no accident that I was at your ballet show that night, Lily,” I say quietly. “I was there because that was my job for your father. I went to all your big events. I stayed in the shadows. Your graduation. Your birthdays. I protected you from afar. That’s all it was for years. A duty I had to uphold.”
