Page 121 of Deathless & Divided

“You hurt me,” Lily whimpered. “Things you love shouldn’t hurt you.”

“I’m sorry.” Damian swept his thumb over her mouth again with the softest touch as he said, “But you should know that there’s so much about you I love, Lily. I love the way you smile because you don’t do it nearly enough. I love how you’re quiet and you don’t need noise when you’re beside me to keep you entertained. I love how you let me make you happy even though you don’t like a lot of things about me.”

“God, stop.”

“Not a chance. Hear me.”

Lily blinked, willing away the stinging in her eyes. “I wish I fucking couldn’t.”

But she could.

Damian’s erection dug a little harder into Lily’s pelvis, reminding her that she had an effect on him, too. One he had never tried to hide. One he always fed into whenever he could. When he bent down to capture her lips in a kiss, she let him. It still hurt but if felt good, too.

Pulling away, Damian dotted soft kisses along her cheekbone. “I love the way you taste and how you always beg me for more. I love burying my tongue into your sweet pussy and how you shake when you come. I love my name in your mouth and wrapping my hands in your hair. I love fucking you because even when it’s dirty, it’s still beautiful, too.”

“So many people are hurting because of this. I can’t be okay with that, Damian. I don’t know how to look the other way.”

“It’s never been about just you, but my one priority was you while it happened,” Damian explained. “You don’t have to look the other way, but when you’re ready to, I’m still going to be standing here when you look back at me. I’m sorry you hate me right now, but I love you and I wish you would hear that.”

Lily blew out a breath, biting on her lower lip. “Why did you do this?”

“I didn’t.”

Dino.

“Why did he do it?” she asked.

“I thought I knew,” Damian said. “I thought I understood.”

“But?”

“I don’t think I know much about him at all.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Damian’s insides twisted into a million and one little knots as Lily lay beneath him, still crying. She cried silently without the sobbing from before. It didn’t hurt Damian any less. Her tears still sliced through every inch of his skin, cutting through the muscle and driving into his bones. She couldn’t possibly understand how her pain affected him.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he told her.

“You must have known it would,” Lily replied.

Damian’s hands were dirty from the ground. Blades of grass and pieces of dirt stuck to his fingertips as he wiped at Lily’s face over and over to rid the tears that were ripping him apart. He only made her dirty, too.

“Christ, I’m sorry,” Damian mumbled.

Lily laughed but even the sound was sad. “Don’t bother. I’m a mess, anyway.”

“My mess.”

“I don’t know how to feel about that,” she whispered.

“The same way you always did. This changes nothing.”

“I think it changes everything.”

Damian frowned though he wished he could hide it. Unfortunately, he was slowly learning that hiding things from Lily never worked out to his favor. “How?”

Lily sighed, using her own dirty hand to rake through her blonde hair. “Because you love me.”