Page 7 of Violent Delights

“Because…”

Her words falter. There is nothing more to say. I know why she’s sorry, but I want her to admit she’s apologizing when she doesn’t have to. I lean in closer. Close enough to see the tension in her shoulders. Close enough to lie to myself for a few more minutes.

“Are you okay?” I ask, my voice low, but she can hear me, she can listen to my breaths, and if we weren’t above the city, I’m pretty sure she’d be able to hear my thudding heartbeat.

Lelia nods too quickly. “Fine.”

Liar.

I push away from the railing, away from her, and step to the side. Her perfume, which reminds me of lilies in the summer, invades my senses. She’s a fragrance I never want to forget.

I stand beside her at the edge of the rooftop, watching the city bustle below us. “So this is how you say goodbye?” I say, trying to make it sound lighthearted, but it comes out dark and gravely. “Meet me up here, admit you’re going to marry someone else, and then disappear from my life forever?”

She doesn’t laugh.

That’s when I realize.

“You’re leaving.”

Her silence answers me before her voice does. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

I stare at the skyline, jaw clenched. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to know.

But she says it anyway because she has more courage than I do. “My father is planning on sending me off to some godforsaken mansion to live with a man I’m going to be forced to marry. I have a feeling it’s going to be Ignacio Mosca. And Cassio has taken it upon himself to be my personal bodyguard.”

Ignacio Mosca.

The name hits like a bullet I haven’t seen coming, even though maybe I should’ve. I’ve heard rumors. I just didn’t want to believe them.

Lelia looks at me then, and I can see it in her eyes—regret, guilt, something pained and fragile. “There is no going back once my father signs the papers.”

My heart feels like it’s trying to break through my chest.

I should turn away. I should congratulate her, act like it means nothing. Like I’m not already lost in her.

But I don’t.

Instead, I say, “Tell me to walk away.”

Her breath catches.

I mean it. I need her to say it. Need her to be the stronger one this time because I’m done pretending I don’t want her. As much as I know it’s wrong to be here, to want to kiss her and claim heras mine, I no longer have a choice in the matter because she’s stolen my heart.

She shakes her head slowly, blinking fast like she’s trying not to cry. “You wouldn’t listen.” Her words are a gentle reminder of what we’re doing.

She’s right. God help me, she’s right.

I stare down at her, really take her in. The curve of her mouth. The fire in her eyes. The pain in her silence.

I’m falling in love with her.

It’s stupid to think I’ve only known her for a short time and I’m already considering love, but there’s something about this girl. A pull. It’s as if we were magnets, traveling the earth, waiting to find each other.

It hits me all at once, stupid and loud and far too late.

She takes a shaky step back, hitting the railing behind her as her arms wrap around herself. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. You weren’t supposed to matter.”

“Then why do I?” I ask, voice low, rougher than I meant it to be. “Tell me why I feel like everything before you was just noise?”

---