Page 28 of Stalked By the Gamer

"Listen to it, Nova. Hear my heartbeat in every damn note. It's yours—it always has been." My voice is a plea, a prayer sent into the void.

"Stop." It's barely a whisper, but it's laced with a vulnerability that slices through me.

"Never," I vow, the word a promise that seals itself around my heart. "Not until you understand that you're the rhythm I can't shake. The obsession that keeps me alive."

The music plays on, the singer's lament a mirror to my soul, begging for another chance. And I stand, a sentinel of longing, as the night deepens around us and our story hangs, suspended in the space between the notes.

"Nova, I know. I got it so fucking wrong. But let me make it right." My heart lays bare before her, each beat a thunderous plea for redemption.

She hesitates, a statue poised on the precipice of forgiveness or condemnation.

"Please," I whisper, the strength of my body belied by the fragility of hope.

Her gaze searches mine, delving into the chaos of my soul, seeking the truth in the wreckage.

"Give me a chance to show you who I can be. The man you deserve." My voice is rough with raw honesty, the kind that only comes when everything else has been stripped away.

"Blaze..." Nova's voice breaks, and I see the glimmer of tears in her eyes.

"Trust me. I swear, I'll spend every day proving myself to you. Just...don't give up on us. Not yet."

The silence stretches, a taut string ready to snap. The boombox slips from my grasp, forgotten as we stand on the threshold of new beginnings.

The night air bites at my skin as I stand here, the space between us charged with an electric current that could light up the darkest of skies. My heart is a jackhammer against my ribcage, each beat a mantra of 'Nova, Nova, Nova.'

"Look at me," I beg, the words scraping out like gravel. "I've been stripped bare, no artifice, no game. Just me... and this relentless craving for you."

Her gaze lifts, those crystal blue eyes swimming with a storm of emotions. She's listening, really listening, and it fuels my courage.

"Everything I've done, every single damn thing, has been to get closer to you," I confess, my hands clenching into fists at my sides. "It might have started as a flicker, but it's a goddamn inferno now."

"Blaze..." Nova begins, her voice quivering like a violin string plucked too hard. "It scares me—the way you want me."

"Good. It should scare you," I admit, stepping closer, ignoring the trembling in my limbs. "Because it's not some high school crush. It’s a collision course, a gravitational pull. It’s raw, and it’s messy, and it doesn’t ask for permission."

She takes a step back, biting her lip, her small frame nearly swallowed by the shadows of her doorway. The vulnerability on her face hits me in the gut, a sucker punch of guilt.

"Is it love or obsession?" she asks, her voice barely above a whisper, but it slices through the tension.

"Can't it be both?" I shoot back, my pulse racing. "Can't I worship the ground you walk on and still hold you like you're my equal? Because that's what you are, Nova. My equal, my opposite, my goddamn salvation."

"Blaze, you're intense," she breathes out, her eyes darting away, then back to mine. "And it’s intoxicating, but also terrifying."

"Let it terrify you," I urge, knowing I’m pushing her to the edge, to that place where fear and desire mix into a potent elixir. "Let it consume you like it consumes me. We can burn together, or we can spend our lives wondering ‘what if’."

"Is there even an ‘us’ without this... this fervor you have?" Her voice breaks, revealing the cracks in her façade.

"Without this fervor," I say, stepping into her personal space, close enough to feel her breath, "we wouldn’t have even started. But with it, Nova, we could be unstoppable."

"Unstoppable," she echoes, a slight tremor in her words.

"Say the word, and I’ll lay the world at your feet," I promise, reaching out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Or tell me to go, and I’ll vanish into the night, taking this tempest with me."

"Blaze," she whispers, closing her eyes for a heartbeat. When they open again, there's a fire there that mirrors my own. "Don’t go. Please."

It's as though a dam breaks within me, the flood of relief so intense it nearly brings me to my knees. "Thank you," I choke out, the words like a lifeline. "I won't let you down. Not again."

"Prove it," she says, her voice steadier now, the hint of steel beneath the softness reminding me of the strength within her petite frame.

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