“No.”
She narrowed her eyes. “That’s manipulative.”
“Is it, though? I mean, we both know you would’ve said yes either way.”
She stared at me for another second and then started giggling. “You’re unbelievable.”
“Eh, but you love me.”
Addy looked down at the ring again, turning her hand slightly to catch the light.
“You really thought this through.”
“I thought about giving you some more time,” I said honestly.
Her gaze snapped back to mine. “And?”
I lifted one shoulder. “I didn’t like that option.”
Something shifted in her expression then. “You’re insane.”
“Yeah. Thought we’d established that.”
She gestured between us. “And this is your version of romantic?”
“This is my way of saying I’m never letting you go and you are mine for eternity.”
Her breath caught slightly, then she exhaled and shook her head as if surrendering to something inevitable.
“Okay.”
Zero dramatics and zero hesitation. It hit harder than anything else she could have said.
My hand tightened at the back of her neck.
“Okay?” I echoed.
She smiled softly at me. “Yeah. Okay.”
The sun glittered across the pool, light catching on water and glass and everything I had built.
Addy was already outside, barefoot and arguing with one of the guards about mango distribution like it was a matter of national importance.
I leaned against the doorframe and watched.
I always watched. Each of her movements pulled at something instinctive and brutal inside me.
The way she laughed.
The way she didn’t hesitate.
The way she existed like no one had ever taught her to be afraid.
It made something in me want to burn the world down preemptively.
She playfully tossed a mango at one of the guards and he fumbled it like it might explode.
“She gonna get someone killed one day,” Kyrill muttered behind me. “By accident.”