“You think that now.” Shaking her head sceptically, she glances away. “You’ll change your mind.”
“No, I won’t.” This feeling is as solid as the ground beneath my feet. “You’re it for me. I understand that you don’t believe me yet.” Though I don’t like it. “You need more time.”
“Youneed to take a sec to realise you’ve gone mad.” She looks back at me, but despite her words, she’s gripping my knuckles with her fingertips, digging her nails in.
“You think I’ll stop loving you? Little bunny, love isn’t like that. It’s not a thing you can turn off. I’ll still feel the same in an hour, a week, a month, a year. A decade, a millennium. I’ll always love you.”
“You’ve been in love before then, since you know so much about it.” Her mouth twists.
Interesting. Is she jealous? My sweet girl. She has nothing to be jealous of.
“Not like you think, no. Not romantically.” That calms her a fraction. “But I’ve witnessed love. I’ve seen the way it wrecks people.”
And until now, I had no idea why anyone would care more for another person than themselves. I thought it was stupid. I didn’t realise that once you found the woman who fits and smooths your every jagged edge, that the sensation of coming home would make it impossible to ever turn away.
I could no more let Willow leave me than give up my tattered soul.
“It’s a permanent mark. You can’t just change your mind because it’s not from your heart. But I’ve seen people die for those they love, and never understood. Until now, because I’d lay down my life for you, if that was what you needed.”
It sounds over the top, but quantum physics is also absurd and true.
“I want you. Whatever you’ll allow, I’ll have. I’ll always crave more, though.”
I touch our foreheads together and tighten my grip on her hands, breathing her in. It’s a simple thing, but another first. This girl is all of them for me. Every first emotion, all the tender moments I hadn’t realised I was missing.
“This is insane,” she mutters, almost to herself, but she’s holding my hands as much as I am hers. “I’m the sister of your enemy, of an Essex Cartel kingpin. You don’t really want this. Let me go. You don’t believe what you just said.”
Ouch.
I grit my teeth to prevent an outright “No” from emerging, and think. She ran away, but she responded when I kissed her.
She’s scared. She’s out of control. So far this morning she has been a bride, watched her groom die in front of her, been very publicly kidnapped, thrown herself from a moving car, and been chased down. Without shoes.
I make a mental note to tend to those bare feet later.
Then an obsessed man twice her age announced that he loves her. And I think she feels the same.
I sigh and look into her face.
It’s not unreasonable that she would be wary, my flighty little bunny. This is a lot to take in.
Maybe she just needs more time, and the illusion of choice.
“Thing is, you’re my payment, Willow.”
She sags.
“Ownership is permanent, but I might be persuaded to accept other assets…” I trail off, leaving her to imagine.
“I don’t have anything,” she says miserably.
I raise one eyebrow.
She huffs. “Literally, I have this blood-splattered dress I’m standing in.”
“I’m sorry about the stains, but it wasn’t like you were going to wear it again,” I point out wryly.
Her lips quirk upwards. “I guess not. Look, I have some money saved,” she confesses in a rush. “I’ll give it to you. But please, not all of it. I’ll need enough to get away.”
