It wasn’t a conscious thought, but suddenly, my body was moving. I was drawn to him, like Icarus to the damn sun… because that’s what Finn was to me.
Warmth, light, and life.
He was the fire that kept the shadows away.
I’d been existing in darkness until he laid those big, hazel eyes on me, and now I didn’t know how to return to my cold and lonely exile without him.
“How long have you been watching?” he asked as I came to stand next to him.
“Since the day we met,” I murmured. And it was the truth. The depth of my feelings for Finn held the weight of a planet, and I was an isolated, drifting satellite doomed to orbit him for eternity.
Today was no exception.
I’d seen him catch every wave.
Celebrated every success and stressed over every mistake.
I’d been there, and I always would be, because I didn’t know how not to be anymore.
Finn scowled at me, then turned away.
“I turned him down,” he said, his voice tight.
We weren’t looking at each other. We were both staring at my tombstone.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have.” My voice came out much lower and quieter than I’d intended.
His head snapped to face me. He dropped his bright pink shortboard, fully turning his entire body toward me, and I flinched away from him.
“What?”he hissed.
I couldn’t look at him. I could barely respond. There was a lump so thick in my throat that it hurt to speak.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have turned him down. Makoa is a good man. He would take good care of you.”
“You can’t be fucking serious.” Finn snarled, and I closed my eyes, trying so hard to stay strong and do the right thing.
“Riddick. Look at me.”
I couldn’t.
He let out a cold, dark laugh. It sounded so foreign on his lips that a chillrolled through me.
“If you’re going to fuck me, then throw me away like I’m a piece of garbage, then the least you can do is be a man about it. Look at me and tell me you don’t want me, Riddick.”
The dam broke.
The lump in my throat cracked, and suddenly, tears flowed down my face. I was angry, heartbroken, and devastated all at once.
I rounded on him with a roar, and I had my hand wrapped around his throat before I could process what I was doing.
Finn didn’t flinch. He just met my gaze head-on as I cuffed him the same way I had on that first day, and his eyes filled with a cold fire I had never seen before.
Suddenly, he wasn’t sunlight. He was as icy as the waves that had taken my life.
“Say it to my face. Go on,” he growled as my fingers tightened around his neck. “Tell me you don’t want me.”
I knew what those words meant to him.
