Page 94 of The Sweetest Revenge

Ariella's fingers tightened around mine, but her eyes remained fixed ahead. I knew she hadn't forgiven me yet.

But she would, in time.

CHAPTER43

ARIELLA

It was pouring rain by the time we made it home.

He'd never admit it, but I could see how much everything was weighing on him. He'd lost his sister, and it turned out it wasn't an accident.

"Hey." I perched on the arm of the couch beside him, my fingers fidgeting with the hem of my sleeve. His gaze turned, freezing on me like he'd just realized I was in the room. "You okay?"

He sucked in a heavy breath as his arms dropped to his side, and he moved into my personal space. "I'm good."

I shouldn't care after everything he'd done to me, but a small part of me understood, understood the need to hurt the person who hurt Kacie, and he truly believed that person was me. The loss of Kacie was still so raw for everyone, but especially Zaiden, and no one helped him mourn her because after she died, his entire family fell apart. I'd spent the last year trying to make sense of her death. I'd blamed myself even though I knew it wasn't my fault.

"It's okay not to be okay," I whispered.

His gaze held mine for a long minute. "I'm—" He shook his head, a muscle working in his jaw. "I don't know."

Silence stretched between us. Rain drummed against the windows, punctuated by distant thunder. I watched his hands curl into fists, then release, curl, and release—a rhythm of restraint.

"Today was a lot," I finally offered.

"You could have been killed."

I swallowed. "I wasn't. And neither were you."

The distance between us on the couch felt both too vast and not nearly enough. He stared at his hands, voice dropping.

"I can't lose someone else," he whispered.

I closed my eyes. "I know."

He sucked in a deep breath. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you cared about me," he breathed as he reached out, brushing a loose strand of hair out of my face and sliding it behind my ear. His touch was so gentle that I almost forgot this was the new Zaiden—the one after Kacie's death.

I did care. I shouldn't, but I did. "I don't want to lose anyone else either." The thought of standing graveside and watching another casket lowered into the ground made my stomach churn.

His fingertips brushed over the bruise on my cheek. "No one is going to hurt you." Everything in his words and his touch made me believe him.

"Zaiden," I whispered, the name caught somewhere between prayer and a curse.

His knuckles dragged down my jaw, so gentle from hands I'd seen curled into weapons. His thumb pressed against my bottom lip, tugging slightly downward.

He leaned closer, his breath warming my mouth without touching it. "I want you more than I've ever wanted anything."

My lungs seized. The rain-soaked air thickened between us. This was the Zaiden I'd fallen for—before accusations, before graves, before hatred. But things had changed—hadn't they?

"I've always wanted you."

His lips hovered over mine, not quite touching. The scent of him filled each shallow breath I managed. My eyes fluttered closed, memory and desire waging war within me.

"Could have fooled me." My fingers spread across his chest, and I shoved gently.

He stepped back. "Really?" he smiled. "You couldn't tell that as much as I wanted to hate you, I couldn't. If you had been anyone else, I would have buried you in that grave alive."

"Zai—"

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