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“Is that why you’ve been avoiding me for the past two days?” he asked, but I was already walking away. “Or are you just ashamed to admit you enjoyed kissing me?”
“To be fair, I do better when I’m prepared.” “Good for you,” I said, unamused. He let out a small laugh. “Just so you know, today I’m prepared.”
He’s so 😳
“What’s keeping you from being mine?”
“Yes, Andromeda. Be with me.”
I want to see you every day of my life.” “Magnus,” I groaned.
“This isn’t as right as it feels. There’s a clear power imbalance.” “I agree,” he said, leaning closer. “But I shall do my best to submit to your dominance with the grace of a gentleman.”
certain and sweet … it felt like a promise. Not a promise of pain. A promise to look after my heart. To maybe—someday—even love me. A promise to not throw me away.
“Not sure how I attract such smart, caring women when I’m such a disaster of a man.”
“Monsters. All fathers … monsters.”
If I look at all the bad in my life along with the good, the bad would bury the good in a landslide. My spirit, my will to live, would shrivel and die. So, instead, I choose to be thankful for what little good I have. And I choose to hope.”
“Sinful?” He slouched forward, gazing into the fire for a moment before looking back at me. “Since when is desiring someone a sin?”
“Desiring—” My jaw snapped shut. He couldn’t be saying what I thought he was saying … “Since when? Since forever. It’s called lust.”
“You’re a rare thing, Andromeda. A masterpiece. You deserve the world.”
“Oh, my little gentle-heart. You had every right. I’m so sorry.” “No, I’m sorry.” “I’m sorrier.”
“You act like you’ve never met us.” I laughed as he kissed my hands, first the backs, then the palms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered to them, and more than anything I wished he’d kiss my lips.
“The ancient Greeks believed,” he said, “that humans were born with four arms, four legs, and two faces. Then some jealous god tore them apart, leaving them to search the earth for the missing half of their soul.”
“It’s not about surviving. It’s about living. I’m not convinced I was truly doing that before you.” He leaned closer, and my heart picked up. “And now I know I won’t last without you. You are my soulmate, my meaning, the entire point to my existence.”
“That you think you can’t live without me. Your heart was beating long before we met.” “Was it?”
“My love may be mad and reckless,” he went on quickly, “but it’s real and honest. Please believe me, this is not a trick—”
“I’m not soft,” I countered. “If everyone cried at every failure, the entire planet would be in a constant state of mourning.”
“Don’t ever cry over a boy again. Unless he transforms into a hyena and tears your leg off. Until that happens, you don’t get to cry.”
It was a specific type of love I’d developed because it had been the only way I was allowed to love Jember. And, for me, I’d needed to love someone for my own survival.
“You’re a miserable old man and you took a five-year-old in to drag her down with you.”
But what slipped out of my mouth was, “You were cruel to me.” “I’m not cruel by nature … if that eases the pain of it.” “It doesn’t.”
“Because it hurt, that’s why. Every little kiss and nose rub was like a new tear beneath my skin. Loving like you do hurts, Andi. So I broke you of the habit, along with any other habit that would make you seem weak to our environment. So that you could survive in the outside world … and so that I could survive living with you.”
“Why didn’t you just give me to someone who could love me?”
“Every girl wants to marry someone like their father. You’ve conditioned me to have horrible taste in men.”
“Everyone’s deserving of love, Magnus. And if they aren’t, who are we to decide that?”
