The bow of her lips.
The faint flush of her porcelain cheeks.
When Rían killed me, this would be over. She would be free.
“How did you know I needed you?” she asked, peering up at me through the thick curtain of her lashes.
“I may or may not have been sitting in the back garden.” Like a lovestruck eejit.
She blinked once. Twice. “You were sitting in the garden?”
“I said may or may not.”
A ghost of a smile played on her lips. “If youhappenedto be sitting in the garden, what would you have been doing there?”
I shrugged. “I would’ve been making sure a vengeful witch didn’t murder my wife in her sleep.” Not the first reason, but one of them.
She was full-on smiling, making my stomach flip. “Careful, now. I may start to believe you actually care about me.”
Care about her? I did a helluva lot more than care about her. After centuries on this earth, the cursed Gancanagh had finally fallen in love.
“That would be disastrous,” I said, laughing it off as if this were all some kind of joke. “Could you imagine the scandal? I have a terrible reputation to uphold.”
“It would only be worse if I believed you loved me.”
My legs nearly gave out, and my palms started to sweat. “You’re right. That would be far worse.”
My breathing hitched as she slowly approached. “Because you don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Love me,” she said.
Desperately. Irrevocably.“Don’t be absurd. I’ve only known you for a few weeks.”
“I want to hear you say it. Say you don’t love me.”
I opened my mouth to deny it, but nothing came out.
“Go on,” she teased with a smirk. “It’s easy. Four little words.I don’t love you.”
Tell her the truth.
It’s now or never.
It wouldn’t make a feckin’ difference.
“I—Shit.” My head pounded and eyes burned and—“I don’t—Dammit.” What was I fighting for? Keelynn deserved the truth. She deserved to know that if there ever came a day this life wasn’t for her, I’d be her escape.
My hands fell to my sides, open and empty, and I spoke the words I never thought I’d be able to say to another person for as long as my mouth was cursed to tell the truth.
“I do. I love you.”
And then I evanesced down into the garden, bracing myself against the cold plaster. I was such a feckin’ coward. But I couldn’t face the pity in her eyes. Didn’t want to hear her scramble for words to ease the sting of her truth.
That she could never care for someone like me.
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