Page 25 of Shifting Desire
“Then prove it.”
“How?Tell me,” I demand, leaning closer to her.“I will do whatever you want.”
She looks up at me, eyes storming with anger and fear and something else that shimmers too close to longing.
“Tell me everything.No more shadows.No more half-truths.I want to know who you are without the mafiaesque crown you wear.Without the dragon.Just you.I want the truth so I can say I chose or rejected you for who you are.”
It’s a terrifying request because no one’s ever asked.No one’s wanted the man underneath the myth.But she does.So, I give it to her.
“I’m over a thousand years old.I’ve fought wars you’ve never heard of, watched cities burn, lost people I loved, and buried every last bit of softness under steel.I’ve ruled monsters, walked with demons, brokered peace with nightmares.And for centuries, I believed I was incapable of being more than that.”I step closer.“But then you walked in with your pink hair and wide mismatched eyes and smart mouth, and you fucking ruined me.You made me want things.Gentle things.Human things.”
I pause.“And I hated you for it.”Her lips part.“But I’ve never stopped loving or wanting you.”
A long beat of silence stretches between us.Then she walks right up to me, barely reaching my chest, and pushes me.Hard.
“I hate you for making me choose,” she spits.“If I had the time you’d had I would know for sure but now I am just running on instinct.”
“I know.”
“I hate that part of me still aches for you even after everything.”
“I know.”I don’t know what else to say in the face of her accusations.
“I hate that I don’t want to walk away,” she whispers.
My heart stutters.
“And that,” she says, voice shaking, “scares me more than anything.”
I look down at her.At this furious, radiant, powerful creature.And I fall.Without touching her, without magic, without claiming the bond, I fall for her all over again.
“I won’t ask you to stay,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper, “but if you do, I’ll spend the rest of my existence proving I’m more than the man who took your choice.I’ll be the man who gives you everything from now on.Every choice is now yours to make.”
Tears slip silently down her cheeks.
“I don’t forgive you,” she whispers.
“I don’t expect you to.”
“But I believe you.”
And just like that, the fire between us doesn’t simmer anymore.It roars.
