“Yes, you are, Daphne. From the way you close your eyes when you eat toaster waffles to the poor choices you sometimes make, everything about you is something I want to kiss.”
“Wolfe. Why are you doing this?”
“Because I used to keep you safe, and now I am holding you hostage.”
“What does that even mean?” she asked, digging her nails into the side of her face.
“It means you became a player on the board, Daphne. Even a hug becomes a prison if you hold on too long. And I am so fucking sorry, I just didn’t want to let you go.”
“You are not making any sense,” she cried, wiping her eyes and leaning forward.
“It will. But I need you to let me have this.”
“Wolfe,” she buried her face in her hands. “Please stop.”
But I couldn’t. Tomorrow would come whether she wanted it to or not.
“So, I need you to keep me,” my voice shivered, the clouds in my eyes making everything rain. “And I needyou…to let me…let you…go.”
“Let me go?” she scoffed. “You are a fucking liar,” she shook her head, glaring at me with a rogue defiance that could burn worlds. “I know what you are doing, and they will never believe you.”
There was nothing Daphne hated more than her safety. It was the reason Threx had denied her for so long, and here I was playing the same card but in a different color.
“You just married Threx. They know him, and they won’t argue with me when I say you chose.”
“But I didn’t!” she sobbed through the cracks.
Fuck, this hurts. Not just under my chest, but in my skull. In my breath. In my goddamn bones.
Thay shifted uncomfortably, his instincts to protect her firing on all cylinders.
“You are right, pretty girl.I did.” I paused, wishing I could hold her. Put her inside me and kiss her all better the way she needed me to. But I couldn’t get to her. Not this time, and shewas safer because of it. That she would be in Maine tomorrow meant that none of this could touch her.
“I love you,” I said in a whisper, watching her eyes brighten just enough. “You are the only one I have ever said that to, and the only person I ever will.”
“Yeah?” she bit her lip. “Well, I fucking hate you. You are a fucking asshole!”
I laughed, wiping my eyes.
“You don’t get to die tomorrow,” she ordered. “And I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re doing, but don’t.”
“I am way too valuable to die, beautiful,” I cleared my throat of the lie. “And there are fates worse than death.” That part was true.
“I don’t care what you say, I am still yours. Put Thay on. He will stop this shit.”
“But if a gun is at your head and they ask who you’re loyal to,” I leaned forward into the frame. “You don’t say both. You say Threx. And you usethat name, do you fucking understand me?”
Her breath hesitated, the silence storming between us.
“Say yes, Daphne.”
She blinked rapidly, raking at the sides of her skull in irritation while she tried to process my words.
“Say it.”
“Yes…Daphne,” she mouthed, rolling her eyes.
“Now say the other thing, too!”