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I saw her for the first time in darkness.
We’ve lived for the last fourteen years in darkness.
Tonight, we’ll heal in the darkness.
CHAPTER 25
ADA
Isense him right before the lights go out.
I think I sensed him the moment he stepped inside this house.
When Kirill and Adrik stormed out, along with most of my security, I secretly hoped this situation was by design. That their distraction would allow the one personinthatthey were trying so hard to keepout.
Now, he’s here.
Standing behind me.
Devouring me with his eyes.
Worshiping me with his stillness.
The tune fades from my lips as I stand here, too. Back turned. Breathing him in. Breathing him out. Wrapping his presence around me like silk. Loving him so completely, like our last day was only yesterday.
When he flicks the switch, I let out a soft cry. Not because I’m scared, but because he’s real and it’s happening, and when you crave something for so long and the universe delivers, for a split-second your mistrust outweighs your joy.
I cry out because, after fourteen long years, my layers of self-preservation won’t allow me to believe that he’s standing in the same room as me until he says my name.
“Ada.”
Oh my God.
“Ada.”
That’s when my chin drops and my shoulders cave, and for the first time since he went away, I allow the tears to fall.
My heartache pours out of me.
I press my fists to my stomach to ease the pain.
I let it flood the spaces between us to show him just how much I’ve suffered without a single word being said.
In turn, his silence tells me all the ways he’s suffered too.
“Ada.”
This time when he says my name, he’s standing right behind me. His voice is harsh. Strained. Older.Everything.
“You came back for me.” I swipe my hand across my wet cheeks and try to catch my breath. I can’t even feel the sting from Kirill’s blow anymore. Frankie’s healing me already.
“However long it took,” he murmurs, reiterating what he said all those years ago, and then his mouth finds the dip between my shoulder blades, and I close my eyes to savour it. Feeling my body come alive again beneath his touch. “Don’t cry, Ada. You stayed alive, dove girl. You stayed alive like you promised.”
For you. For Alex.
I lean my head back against a wall of muscle that’s so much harder and broader than I remembered.
“No other man came close to owning you. Not this heart inside your chest, the taste of sunshine on your skin, the beat between your legs…” His thick forearm slides around my waist trapping me against his erection. “They were always mine, Ada. This was never theirs to steal.”
