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I swallow, leaning into his touch. “I don’t want that. I want to make your life better.”
“That’s the problem. Because now that you have, I don’t want to go back to what things were.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Lynx, who’s always distanced himself from emotion, is actually saying what could be the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. When was the last time someone actually wanted me around? When was the last time someone admitted that I was good for them?
A thought sneaks in that I do everything to ignore, but it nudges at my consciousness in a way I can’t shake. Maybe I could stay.
Maybe.
Just let go of the idea of Portland and keep living in this little place with its weirdo people. But how would that even work? I can’t just move in with Lynx permanently, and it’s not like I can go back to Hobby Straight in case Antonio finds me there. Besides, if this thing with Lynx crashes and burns, will I even want to be here? Wilde’s End isn’t the type of place I’ve always dreamed of living. In fact, it’s exactly the type of place I’ve been dying to escape.
All I’ve ever wanted was to be wanted though, and the way Lynx is looking at me right now … I can see it. The emotion I’ve always craved.
“You feel like mine,” he whispers.
I nod. “I feel like yours.”
“That’s terrifying.”
“It is.” I step closer, scared of losing this moment. This cocoon of privacy where it’s only us and the storm raging outside, protecting us from all the bad that Lynx is convinced is out to get us. “But maybe we can pretend that it isn’t.”
His thumb replaces his fingers and brushes over my cheekbone. “Maybe I could keep you.”
“Maybe you could.”
Something shifts behind his expression, and both hands come up to cup my face. “I need you to do something for me, rabbit.”
The gravel that enters his tone has me perking up. “Anything.”
“I need you to run.”
“But the storm—”
“Will make you harder to find.”
Lust sweeps over me, and something else follows it. Something that lingers in my chest and spreads all the way to my fingertips. I reach for the bottom of my crop top and pull it over my head. “Give me to ten?”
He laughs, and it sounds feral. “I’m doomed to give you anything you need.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
LYNX
Ihunt him down, feeling freer and more alive than I can ever remember feeling. The rain coats my skin, clothes left behind, and my hair is dripping into my eyes. I’m so aware of it all. Of the way the thunder cracks in my ears and the lightning gives everything a ghostly glow for one or two seconds before it’s pitch-black again.
There’s no moon to guide me, but I don’t need it. I just need Sasha.
My heart is in pain the more I think about him. Wretched, awful pain. The kind of pain I swore I’d never feel again. Telling him about my family broke me, and when he didn’t immediately run away, when he didn’t call me a monster or agree I should have done more, it healed something that’s long been torn open. Not all the way. Maybe not even enough to make a difference. But he accepted me.
I can’t ever let him go.
Not to Portland. Not to Wayward. Nowhere.
I need him with me.
My rabbit who I have to keep safe.
