AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A part of me isn’t surprised at all to hear his voice. I can’t see him yet, but I know it’s him. My savior. Did he come to save me again?
“If I didn’t know any better,” I slowly say, turning around to face him, “I’d think you were following me.”
I stare him down. The moon is big and bright above us. It is illuminating the clearing around us, and we are in the spotlight, as if it’s waiting for us to put on a show.
“This is a free country,” he shrugs, tilting his head.
I want to grab him by the chin and force him to look away, to look at anything else but me. I don’t dare do that. I don’t dare get closer to him in any way.
“But twice in two nights is too much,” I tell him.
“Is it?” he wonders, taking a step closer to me. “Maybe I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t roaming the woods alone, looking for trouble.”
“So, what if I am?” I ask. “How is that any of your concern?”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he shakes his head at me disapprovingly.
As he does that, I notice his scar. It is much deeper than I thought. More noticeable, too. The curious cat in me wants to touch it with the tips of my fingers, to see what it feels like.
I have no idea where this thought came from. I banish it from my mind, but only for a moment. Then it returns with a vengeance. It almost forces me to come close to him, to inhale his wild scent, to… do unthinkable things with him.
I can’t believe that I’m so unreasonable right now. I don’t even know him. I have no idea who he is. He might be a serial killer on the loose. He might have a gun or a knife hiding underneath that shirt. He might pull it out any moment and kill me.
That thought alone should make me run away. Yet, it doesn’t. Some profound force of will is keeping me here, our eyes interlocked, with neither of us willing to look away first. It’s almost like a contest of wills, and we both want to win.
“You don’t know the Chinese concept of saving lives, do you?” he asks.
“The what?” I frown, wondering if he’s purposely making no sense so I’d lower my guard.
“The Chinese concept of saving lives,” he repeats, but even now it makes as little sense as it did a moment ago.
“What is that?” I ask, playing into his game. Maybe this way, I’d make him lower his guard.
“Well, to put it plainly, if you save a life, you’re responsible for it,” he explains.
It takes me a moment to realize what he’s saying. “You think you saved my life?” I ask him. “Aren’t you a bit conceited?”
He chuckles with his lips open and his teeth bare. It’s a smile to die for. A smile to kill for. I try not to let this thought sink in. He’s not that hot. I have to keep repeating this over and over again, but every time, the truth is stronger than this flimsy lie I keep telling myself.
“It really seemed like they were going to hurt you,” he tells me tenderly this time, as if he’s actually concerned about my wellbeing. For a moment, I almost believe him. Almost. “Didn’t I save you?”
“You… helped,” I give him that much. “But like I already told you, I would have been able to get out of that situation on my own… eventually.”
Instead of a reply, he walks all the way to me. Now, we’re standing so close that our noses are almost touching. My eyes want to drift down to his scar, to take a closer look at it, because something tells me that not many people have dared stand this close to this man and live to tell the tale.
I can’t look down. I can’t look away from his eyes. They are mesmerizing. They shine more brightly than the moonlight, as if oozing some strange light I’ve never seen before, a light that might take me to places I’ve never known.
“If you were mine, you would never have to fear anything ever again,” he whispers, and every atom in my being shivers in response. There isn’t a single part of my body that doesn’t react to the sound of his voice. There isn’t a single thought in my mind that doesn’t belong to him at this moment.
I feel like I’m drowning in those eyes, in that voice, in that hot air that is oozing from his lips, which are mere inches away from mine.
Mine.
My mind reminds me of the word he used. If you were mine.
I never belonged to anyone. I never belonged anywhere. I don’t know what that feels like, when someone wants you by their side, truly wants you and no one else.
Mine is a word that I have very rarely used. Yet, he said it so easily, as if it were nothing.
