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What I really want to say is, more like I only have to endure you for a couple more hours. But I’ve worked hard at taming that spark inside me, the one that lights easily and races across everything I touch. My temper can be a wildfire, and I hate to think where that aspect of me comes from, so I tamp it down.
Nadia Dalca is like a sliver under my fucking skin, stuck a little too far in to get out. It’s annoying.
Like the simplest things in life bring her pleasure. It makes me desperate to know what else is on that list. What else could bring her happiness like what’s flowing off her right now? Because, in this moment, I think I’d do anything to check those things off for her.
I swallow because I am so fucked where Nadia Dalca is concerned. Yes, Wildflower. I like saying your name.
But I’m old enough to know better. I’m smart enough to know that I’m what sent her packing. That girl looked up in my eyes and gave me the perfect opportunity to tell her I’m fucking obsessed with her. And I didn’t take it. I’m a coward. She told me she’d stop coming after me, and she did. I just didn’t expect it to gut me the way it has.
“I thought you looked like you needed to be handled by a real man. By me.”
“I thought you looked like you were supposed to be mine.”
“But I’m ready for dessert when you are, Wildflower.”
“I’ll give you all my right nows, Nadia. Every fucking last one. I’ll give you anything you want. I’ve been powerless since the first time I laid eyes on you.”
“You got that? You. Are. Mine.”
“She told me I’m the only person she’s never seen you stutter around.”
I feel safe. I feel treasured. I feel like my home is held tight between his rock-hard arms.
I’m beyond pretending I’m not staring at her, so I lean my elbows back on the step behind me and take her in. I try to commit her to memory. The sway of her hips, the curve of her neck, the unruliness of her hair. My wildflower.
“I want to see the man you can be when you get out from underneath all that shame, all the pain you’ve buried. You deserve a fresh start, Griffin. You deserve to be happy, and I can’t be the only thing that does that for you. I don’t want to be your antidote. I want to be your reason. The reason you put the work in.”
“Meet you at the top, Wildflower.”
“I think in some cases, age is just a way to measure the number of years you spent without the person meant for you.”
“You can grow together but taking the time to prove to yourselves that you can grow on your own is wise.”
