“Well, I didn’t know that!”
I try not to smile but I fail miserably.
“This isn’t funny,” she spits.
“No.” I pull her closer against me. “What’s funny is you thinking I’d let another man touch you.”
She rolls her eyes. “You can’t kill every guy that looks at me.”
I scoff. “Watch me.”
“Hayden,” she warns. “I’m serious.”
Unfortunately… I absolutely am.Then her expression softens sadly.
“I made a deal with my father,” she says, and ice settles in my chest.
“What kind of deal?” I growl, and she looks away. Fuck! I know I am not going to like what she says next.
“To stay out of Brimstone House…”
No.
“No!”
Her voice cracks. “I have to set a wedding date with Brayden after graduation.”
Rage detonates instantly and my entire body goes still in that dangerous way right before violence.
“You’re not marrying anybody,” I say coldly.
“Hayden…” she warns again.
“I mean it,” I grit as my jaw clenches painfully. “Brayden Augustine better learn how to disappear quietly, because if he keeps touching what’s mine…”
She grabs my face suddenly. “Look at me!” she shouts, and my eyes snap to hers. Her blue eyes fill with tears again. “I don’t want him,” she says as pain slices through me anyway. Because another man gets to walk beside her publicly while I exist in stolen moments and shadows. “I only ever want you.”
Those words wreck me and I kiss her before I can stop myself. Hard. Emotional. Desperate enough to hurt.
When we finally break apart, she rests against my chest beneath the stars breathing shakily.
“Why do you call me Firefly?” she asks, and I smile into her hair.
“Because even in the dark…” I murmur. “You glow,” I say, and she gasps. “You were the only good thing I had growing up, baby,” I say as my fingers brush gently through her curls. “The only light.”
Tears slide silently down her cheeks.
“And fireflies…” I swallow thickly. “They’re beautiful little things people spend their whole lives trying to catch before they disappear,” I whisper, and she whips around in my lap and kisses me. Slow this time. Aching. Like she’s trying to memorize this exact moment before the world ruins it tomorrow.And maybe it will.
Maybe all these promises are just fragile dreams waiting to break apart. But tonight…
Under these stars with my Firefly in my arms… I let myself believe in forever anyway.
Ophelia
“Here without you-3doorsdown”
The ride back to the warehouse feels unreal. Like I’m floating somewhere between happiness and heartbreak with Hayden’s touch still burned into my skin with the promise of tomorrow already threatening to ruin me.
