AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I dropped my gaze to the floor. “I have to go home,” I whispered.
Minutes passed in the blink of an eye.
“Okay,” he said, suddenly. “I’ll find a way. We’ll get you on a boat somehow. If it’s what you really want.”
“It is,” I blurted out with relief.
“Can I just ask you one favour?”
I looked up and he was kneeling in front of me. Having him close took the breath from my lungs. His indigo eyes sank their claws beneath my skin and tugged me towards him.
“When you get to the mainland, you’re going to hear things. Just know I’ve had nothing to do with it, and I’m doing everything in my power now to make it right.”
A slither of dread entered my chest. “What are you talking about?”
His gaze didn’t waver. “I can’t tell you because I don’t know the facts yet, but I will, and I’m going to fix this fucking mess.”
What? I narrowed my eyes as if that might help me read more clearly between the lines.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, but please, whatever you hear, don’t let it turn you against me. All I’ve ever wanted is for you to be safe and happy.” He shifted forward and I resisted the urge to fall into him, to feel his thick, protective arms around me.
“Actually, that’s a lie,” he said. “What I really want is for you and me to be together, but I know that’s not what you want right now. But I can and will hope, Vivian. So please, remember who I am, and what we had. Promise me.”
My heart ached for him, for us. I couldn’t promise him anything, but I could tell a brazen lie.
“I promise.”
He leaned forward and pressed his lips to my forehead. My body reacted with a tremble that I felt in my blood.
“I’m getting you out of here. When all this is over, I’ll come and find you. If you decide this is not what you want, I’ll leave you alone.”
Shaking, I touched my fingertips to the curve of his jaw. “Rupert, I don’t know what I want anymore, and things are so complicated. You’re married now; you have huge responsibilities. You have to stop Ossian – whatever he’s doing, it has to stop.”
A shadow darkened his brow. “And I have to make him pay for what he did to you.”
I shook my head. “No, that was my fault. I should never have opened myself up to the possibility you would still be available to me. I shouldn’t have come here. I brought this on myself.”
“Vivian…” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “You coming here has changed everything. I was always going to leave this place and find you. I always questioned how the fuck I’d been born into this evil family. You’ve confirmed why everything has felt so wrong all my life, and you risked so much by coming back here. I can end this place now with no guilt, no regrets. These people aren’t my family. This wealth isn’t even mine. And what Ossian did was… unforgiveable. It was inhuman. He doesn’t deserve to live.”
I let my fingertips slide from his face and land in my lap. My chest was in turmoil and my stomach hollowed. I hadn’t eaten in days. I still felt the same relentless pull towards the man kneeling in front of me, but an invisible barrier surrounded me, closing me in, keeping him away.
“I can’t think of anything beyond getting away from here.” I stared at my lap, unable to bear his beauty any longer. “Don’t ask me to. Just please… get me home.”
He leaned towards me, then hesitated. I felt a pull from deep inside my chest, like gravity. Every cell in my body yearned to reach into him. I shook my head and turned away.
“Can you please leave?”
I heard him swallow, loudly. “Are you sure?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and nodded. Having him in such close proximity, within touching distance, made my skin throb.
“I’m sure.”
I felt his energy shift as he stood and looked down at me, but I didn’t open my eyes until I heard the door to Minty’s flat close behind him. Then I buried my face into the sofa cushions and wept.
Rupert
“It’s through here,” I said, leading Marcia through the flea-bitten lounge into the corridor that led to the back room of the social club where the Rebellion met daily. To her credit, she didn’t falter once, didn’t curl her lip at the approaching stench of stale nicotine.
