AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Who’d become a woman in love.
The lightning hit me so hard, I jolted backward. Slammed fingertips to my lips, as if they’d burst with the words if I didn’t keep them pushed inside.
Only there was the fucking rub. The lightning burning my brain. Pushing at my lips.
I love him.
“Tupulai? What is it?”
I love you.
No.
I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
I wouldn’t.
I took another step back. As I did, I literally imagined that part of me—that burning, bright, ball of completion and joy I’d allowed myself to acknowledge, even if just for those few seconds—now left behind, plopped on the ground between us. If the orb had been real, it would’ve left behind a burn on the ground. Would have branded that small part of the world…
The same way he’d changed mine.
Had changed me.
I couldn’t fight the acknowledgment any longer. Couldn’t deny I’d be leaving Arcadia a much different woman, a much different person than I was just a few days ago. But renouncing that new Lucy was like shitting on the man who’d given her to me in the first place. Shown me the truth of who I was…
And how beautiful that truth could really be.
Me.
Just like this. Snarky, smart-ass, silly, passionate, kinky, weird little me.
She was pretty fucking cool.
And now, I even believed it too.
Shiraz Cimarron had given me so much—but most of all, he’d given me that.
And somehow, I’d find a way to keep honoring him…by cherishing her.
Starting now.
Forcing my lips into a soft smile, I took one more step back. For some reason, this one was harder than the first. Could’ve had something to do with how Shiraz watched me do it. Like I took his legs with me.
Dammit.
“Lucina?”
Dammit.
“I have to go now, gorgeous.” I let him reach for my hand. Even let him take it—though when he tugged to draw me closer, I resisted. “I have to go.”
For a second, he grimaced like I’d taken his legs and broken his nose. Yep. He’d gotten my meaning, all right.
I swallowed a lump the size of this whole island.
He gripped me tighter.
