Exodus (The Ravenhood Duet, #2)

by Kate Stewart

Back turned, he pulls my top from his pocket and frees it at his side before it falls to the deck. “I’ll think about it.”

I’m a drifter in my own life, living only for memories, for my dreams, reveling in the endless hurt, the ache of missing them, teetering on the edge of forgetting myself all over again.

Covering my chest with both hands, I close my eyes and mouth the truth. “I love you.” It’s when I open them that I see his raw reaction to my confession. He takes a step forward, his face marred with indecision a second before he snaps our connection and joins Sean in the car. And in the next breath, they disappear.

In a flash, he crosses the kitchen and painfully grips my jaw in his hand. “My curiosity stems from the fact I was lied to and gutted by the two people I trusted most in the whole fucking world. I think you know how fucked

And with Tobias, it’s like inhaling energy, each breath I draw grows heavy with it, pulling me further into him, into a place I’ve never been.

My heart has no place here.

“As long as this is happening, it’s only you.”

Je ne veux pas n’être qu’une phase pour toi.”

“Why? Just tell me what I did? Was it her? Do you hate her so much you refused to get involved with me because I remind you of her? Tell me why you can’t be the father I deserve. Tell me why you can’t love me. Tell me why she so clearly still loves you!” He repeatedly swallows as I come unhinged.

It’s there on my father’s front porch, in his nemesis’s arms, that I find solace.

“He doesn’t decide your worth. No one does. I know that doesn’t make it better, but he doesn’t deserve you.”

“With you, Cecelia, I realized anger can make you just as reckless as any other emotion. And yet here I am, doing very bad things to a very good thing,” he whispers, just before he claims my salty lips.

Don’t ever forget the way you felt in the boardroom today. No matter how much life you live.”

“And because of you, I see this place again for what it truly is. It hasn’t lost any of its magic. I just forgot how to look for it.”

A peace washes over me as I remember the future I’d mapped for myself in that boardroom. A decision to live in the now, even knowing what I know. Risk and reward. No regrets. I’ve decided on my part to play.

even if everyone I give myself to denies me, I refuse to believe it’s a mistake.”

“Your heart is not your weakness, Cecelia. It’s mine.”

Tortured eyes meet mine, and I see his defiance, not against me, but against the stars lining up against us. Utter fucking disaster.

“Yours. I was always supposed to be yours,” I say as he nods and crushes me with his kiss.

“Well, brother, would you take a fucking look at this? Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“Notre mère aurait honte de toi.” Our mother would be ashamed of you.

Sean bites his lip, a lone tear falling straight from his eyes to the hand that now holds his ball cap, and I die at the sight of it.

“That’s a lie. You wanted her the minute you saw her. Don’t forget, brother, I know you. You saw what we saw. Except you knew how we felt about her because we fucking told you.” Sean snaps out his arm, pointing at him to stay back. “You asked me if she was worth it, and I told you she was.

“That’s one question I can answer,” he whispers, his eyes piercing as he leans in, “yes.” “Yes, what?” “Yes,” he strokes my face, “I’ve been in love.”

“But she went and fell in love with my brother.”

“We love rainy days, don’t we, baby?”

“S’il te plaît, ne fais rien de stupide. Je t’aime.” Please don’t do anything stupid. I love you. “Je sais.” I know.

and squeezes them faintly before his eyes lift to his brother. His pain-filled words coming out chopped. “Nous savions tous les deux que je n’allais jamais voir mes trente ans, mon frère. Prends soin d’elle.” We both know I was never going to make it to thirty, brother. Take care of her.

“Frères pour toujours.” Always brothers. “Mother greet you,” Tobias replies. “Father keep you. I love you, brother.”

“I wish you would have taken me with you,” I manage through a voice full of ache. “But, I guess, in a way, you took us all with you.”

“You left before I had a chance to tell you about the future I dreamt up for you. Maybe it had a little of my dreams mixed in with it too. Maybe it was a daydream for us, but it was a good one. It wasn’t a plan so much as it was a place. A place filled with music and laughter, books, and long kisses, and endless rainy days. It was a place where you didn’t have to hide your smile anymore.”

“I dreamed a thousand dreams, but this was the first one.”

and slams a bottle of Louis Latour onto my desk. “I guess congratulations are in order.” I don’t bother to correct him. “Don’t suppose you have a corkscrew?” He leans in, his tone lethal. “If you keep fucking with me, Cecelia, I’m going to make this hurt.” I shrug. “Of course, you will.”

“He loves you, you know.” I turn back to where he sits. “Not that I’m encouraging this shit because let me make myself clear, I hate him. He’s a pompous, French asshole. But no man can rage that much over a woman that means nothing to them. He’s fighting it.”

“The dreams won’t let me forget. I’ve tried everything, and I can’t move on. I can’t. So that’s why I came home, and you,

“T’aimer m’a rendu malade et je ne veux plus jamais guérir.” Loving you made me sick, and I don’t ever want to get well.

by the time I returned after my sophomore year of college, and that was the first time I laid eyes on you.”

“No, because I allowed myself to get lost in you the way they had.”

“Why would he agree to any of this, trust you, knowing who you were and your intentions?” His eyes bore into mine. “Because that day, I told him I was in love with his daughter.”

“I didn’t know how fucking possessed I was until I saw the way they loved you.” I stand deathly still as he lifts livid eyes to mine. Unexpected calm washes over me. “I’m still yours, Tobias.”

forget her past and be solely yours, and I truly want you to be happy.”

“Je suppose que je serai toujours la fille qui pleure à la lune.” I guess I’ll always be the girl crying for the moon.”

“What pisses me off the most is that I let you go because I don’t want you anymore, and you’re too blind to see that.”

I might be strong enough, but he’s not. He turns and stalks out, leaving the door open.

Until we meet again. Until we can feel the rain on both our faces. There has to be a time for us in the next life. I don’t want any part of a heaven where I don’t see you.

“no matter how hard I fought it over the years, I am my mother’s daughter.” Confusion flits over his features, and I nod toward the letter. “Read it. It’s the same pathetic shit. I ended up living here all those years ago because my mother had the audacity to try and come back and win the heart of a man who didn’t love her enough to let her in on his secrets. Who couldn’t forgive her enough for being young and reckless. Who punished her for horrible mistakes he himself helped liberate her from, all the while loving her from afar because he refused to trust her

enough to make her own decisions. My father slammed the door in her face. And it ruined her. It’s poetic justice, really.”

But I’m keeping my love story, not because it included both martyr and sacrifice, or because it’s the story I wanted, it’s because I would never rewrite it. And I would live it all over again just for the chance to sing with him.

“Trouble?” he drawls, “Oh, I think I should be asking you since it just walked into my garage.”

Cedar and sunshine, and Sean. The smell is distinctly his. It has my emotions warring as I inhale as deep as I can before he lets me back on my feet. Deep creases line the corners of his eyes as his smile lights up, filling me to the point a fast tear forms and falls.